Santa Mandera
Introduction
Santa Mandera is a registered mental health nurse who had spent 22 years on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register before being struck off in July 2026. She worked at a private psychiatric hospital in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth in south-west London, whose name is redacted in the NMC’s final report. A fitness-to-practise panel found that over five months in 2021 she left a high-risk patient unattended on a night shift, gave two other patients incorrect medication, and falsified a patient’s records to conceal one of the drug errors. The panel ruled she was dishonest and imposed the most serious sanction available to the regulator: removal from the register.
Background Information
Mandera worked at a private psychiatric hospital serving Roehampton and Wandsworth in South London. The hospital has not been publicly named; the NMC redacted its identity in its final determination. The Care Quality Commission had rated the hospital Good in September 2020, upgrading it from Requires Improvement, and that rating remained current throughout the period covered by Mandera’s case. By the time of the 2026 decision she had been on the NMC register for 22 years. The events that ended her career unfolded across five months of 2021: a supervision failure in March, medication errors at the end of July, and a record-keeping error in August, followed by an internal hospital investigation, her resignation that November, and an NMC referral in January 2022.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings described here are regulatory findings made on the balance of probabilities by a Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness-to-practise panel — not criminal convictions, and a striking-off order is not a criminal record. Mandera disputed most of the charges at the hearing. The panel accepted that one incident, the copying of one patient’s notes into another patient’s file, was a genuine mistake rather than dishonesty, and it rejected her suggestion that someone else may have signed the medication chart as unsupported by evidence.
On a night shift in March 2021 — 18 March, according to South London News — Mandera was working as nurse in charge and was responsible for one-to-one observation of a patient assessed as high risk. The patient had previously tried to smoke on the ward, and the tribunal heard that staff treated this as a serious fire risk, because the hospital had experienced a fire caused by smoking not long before. The panel found that Mandera left the patient unsupervised for around 20 minutes.
At the end of July 2021, over another night shift, she gave one patient more than double their prescribed dose of Diazepam and gave a second patient a dose of the antipsychotic Olanzapine that a doctor had already discontinued. She then recorded giving that second patient a further dose of the same drug at midnight. The panel found she had not actually given it, and that the false entry was a deliberate attempt to hide the earlier mistake; South London News, dating both errors to 27 July 2021, reported that the timestamp was intended to create ambiguity around the date of administration.
In August 2021, concerns were raised after Mandera copied one patient’s background notes into a different patient’s file. The panel accepted this was a genuine mistake rather than dishonesty, but found it was still a serious lapse in record-keeping.
The hospital’s own drugs audit picked up the discrepancy, and an internal investigation followed from August 2021. Mandera denied the allegations when interviewed. She resigned on 4 November 2021, with the hospital’s internal disciplinary hearing still under way; Putney.news reports it concluded about two months later. The hospital referred her to the NMC in January 2022. Because the regulator’s process took almost four years, Mandera continued working as a nurse until August 2025, the month the tribunal hearing began; it did not reach a final decision until July 2026.
At the hearing, Mandera disputed most of the charges and suggested that someone else may have signed the medication chart. The panel rejected that explanation as unsupported by any evidence and found that CCTV footage contradicted her account of the observation failure. She admitted that her conduct amounted to misconduct, which the panel took into account in her favour, and she had completed training on record-keeping and accountability since leaving the hospital. The panel found little evidence, however, that she had reflected on what went wrong or applied that training in practice, concluding that the case involved “a disregard for patient safety, professional accountability” rather than a lack of training.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The panel struck Mandera off the register, the most serious sanction available, and imposed a further eighteen-month suspension to cover the period in which she could appeal. In its published conclusion, it stated: “The panel considered that the concerns were wide-ranging and involved different areas of nursing practice, including failures to undertake appropriate observations, failures in medication administration, failures in record keeping, inaccurate documentation, and a failure to demonstrate openness and honesty.” The panel concluded that a striking-off order was the only appropriate and proportionate sanction to protect the public.
Representing the NMC, solicitor Rosie Welsh submitted that the allegations represented “serious failures in fundamental nursing duties, including the supervision of a vulnerable patient, safe administration of medication, accurate record keeping, and maintaining honesty and integrity within the profession.” South London News reported that the determination described her actions as demonstrating a “disregard for fundamental nursing responsibilities.” The regulatory findings were not criminal convictions.
Current Status
Mandera was struck off the NMC register in July 2026, and an eighteen-month interim suspension covers the appeal period, during which she may not practise as a registered nurse. The hospital where she worked has since changed hands; under its new owner it was rated Requires Improvement by the Care Quality Commission in 2023 before being upgraded back to Good in 2026.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The striking-off removed Mandera from the register after 22 years and ended her ability to work as a registered nurse in the United Kingdom. The panel acknowledged the mitigation put forward by her representative, Priya Khanna — severe personal hardship during the period in question and subsequent professional training courses — but found she had shown little reflection or application of that training.