Lorna Fell

Introduction

Lorna Fell is a registered nurse who was struck off the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register after a panel found she gave a hospital patient twice the prescribed dose of Oramorph, concealed the medication error and asked a doctor to alter the prescription to match what she had given. The panel found her dishonest on three counts, ruled her fitness to practise currently impaired, and concluded that only a striking-off order would protect the public and maintain confidence in the profession. The findings were made on the civil standard applied in regulatory proceedings, which is not a criminal conviction.

Background Information

Fell was registered with the NMC under pin number 13A1654E and was employed as a registered nurse at Nuffield Health Hospital, where the charges against her arose. Her case was heard by an NMC panel at a substantive hearing that ran from 17 August to 21 August 2026, with the decision dated 21 August 2026. She was not present and was unrepresented at the hearing. The panel’s published record notes that she had previously received a final written warning from her employer for misconduct she went on to repeat.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings below are those of an NMC panel, made on the civil standard applied in regulatory proceedings and attributed throughout to that panel; they are not criminal findings. Charge 3a was expressly not proved.

The panel found proved that on 19 October 2023 Fell failed to review Patient A’s prescription before administering Oramorph, and administered 20mg instead of the prescribed 10mg. She then failed to record that a medication error had occurred and did not inform Patient A of it. She asked Colleague A not to report it, and asked the resident doctor to change Patient A’s prescription from 10mg to 20mg — conduct the panel found dishonest, in that she intended to mislead others into believing no medication error had occurred.

The panel also found proved that on 12 March 2024 she left prescribed Gabapentin next to Patient B without observing them consume it, then incorrectly recorded that they had done so at 10pm. That day she also failed to undertake regular observations as directed, and failed to review Patient C’s records before administering oral paracetamol, which she administered incorrectly. The following day, 13 March 2024, she removed Gabapentin from the controlled drug cupboard without a second checker and incorrectly recorded that Patient B had missed their morning dose. The panel found the inaccurate records at charges 3d and 4b were dishonest. It found that charge 3a was not proved.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel found Fell’s conduct amounted to misconduct and that her fitness to practise is currently impaired. At the sanction stage it found that, given the “high level of serious dishonesty which posed a risk of harm to vulnerable patients”, only a striking-off order would be appropriate. It considered her actions significant departures from the standards expected of a registered nurse and “fundamentally incompatible” with her remaining on the register.

The panel rejected taking no action and a caution order, finding her actions were not at the lower end of the spectrum and that there is a risk to patient and public safety. It concluded that allowing her to continue practising would not protect the public and would undermine public confidence in the profession and in the NMC as a regulatory body. In mitigation it weighed her partial informal admission of the facts in the Agreed Removal Application, limited insight on clinical errors, and some information of difficult personal circumstances. Against that it set repeated dishonest acts, dishonesty in a clinical role, no insight on dishonesty, failure to engage in the Fitness to Practise process without good reason, coercion of a junior member of staff, deceiving a doctor to improperly prescribe controlled drugs to a vulnerable patient, and repeating misconduct for which a final written warning had previously been issued.

Current Status

Fell is struck off the NMC register, with erasure reviewable after a minimum of five years. A striking-off order was imposed together with an interim suspension order of 18 months to cover the 28-day appeal period. She was not present and unrepresented at the hearing. No appeal outcome has been reported in the published determination, which stands as the record of the panel’s findings, the sanction, and the reasons for it.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Erasure removes Fell from the register, and she is no longer permitted to practise as a nurse in the UK; the sanction is otherwise indefinite unless reviewed after five years. The findings of dishonesty relate to her clinical role, and the panel found no indication of having strengthened practice or any willingness to do so, alongside the vulnerability of the person receiving care and the likelihood of actual harm caused to a patient. For a nurse found to have concealed a medication error, asked a colleague not to report it and deceived a doctor into re-prescribing a controlled drug, the striking-off order ends her registered career unless she successfully seeks restoration after the minimum review period.