Sarah Marie Thorpe
Introduction
Sarah Marie Thorpe is a dental nurse formerly registered with the General Dental Council (registration number 244968) who was erased from the register — struck off — in July 2024 after a Professional Conduct Committee found she had authored signed prescriptions for prescription-only medicines, something no dental nurse may do, and misrepresented her qualifications, her patients and her professional status. The Committee made six findings of dishonesty and seven of misleading behaviour.
The hearing ran from 1 to 8 July 2024, remotely via Microsoft Teams. Thorpe was neither present nor represented; she emailed the regulator that she was “in the middle of exams at University” and would send input by email. Satisfied she had voluntarily waived her right to attend, the Committee proceeded in her absence.
Background Information
The determination records Thorpe as a dental nurse registered since 2013, with no previous fitness to practise history — good character the Committee put in her favour. The events ran from May to October 2021, when she authored signed prescriptions for prescription-only medications and provided them to Witness 1, a dental therapist registered to administer Botox treatments. The regulator learned of it through Witness 2, an online pharmacist: checking a prescription issued in Thorpe’s name, he saw its registration number was linked to a registered dentist, and contacted the GDC in November 2021.
The hearing was partly held in private: the GDC applied under Rule 53 for matters concerning Thorpe’s health, and those passages are redacted in the public version. It also withdrew Charges 8 and 9 — dishonesty allegations about addresses linked to the first charge — for want of a sufficiency of evidence.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings below are regulatory findings made on the balance of probabilities by a GDC Professional Conduct Committee — not criminal convictions. Thorpe was absent and unrepresented, and her written denials were untested. The burden of proof lay with the GDC, with cogent evidence required before findings of dishonesty; several charges failed or were withdrawn, as noted below.
The core charge was proved: on six dates between 24 May and 29 October 2021, Thorpe authored and provided Witness 1 with signed prescriptions for prescription-only medicines. Expert evidence was that, for a dental nurse, “prescribing does not fall within the permitted duties and is not an additional skill that can be acquired with extra training or as a part of direct access” — which Thorpe herself accepted in a July 2024 email, saying she had “acted beyond her scope of practice”. The Committee found the conduct misleading, giving the false impression she was permitted to prescribe, and dishonest, “in that you knew you were not allowed to prescribe”. Applying the Ivey v Genting Casinos test, it rejected her account that she took advice and was “used as a bit of a scapegoat” — an experienced dental nurse would have known she could not prescribe.
The prescriptions carried further false claims, all found proved. Each recorded that Witness 1 was Thorpe’s patient and suggested face-to-face consultations had taken place before the prescriptions were completed, when Witness 1 — her work colleague — said she had never received any treatment or consultation from Thorpe. The Committee found both statements misleading and dishonest: Thorpe knew Witness 1 was not her patient and knew no consultation had happened. The prescriptions also carried registration numbers belonging to other dental professionals; the Committee found the implication that the number was Thorpe’s own misleading, but did not find proved the charge that she knew she was required to include her own registration number.
The Committee also found proved that, before 24 May 2021, Thorpe told Witness 1 she was a mental health nurse who had completed a course to become a nurse prescriber — misleading and dishonest, as she knew she had never been registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. It further found that on nine dates between January 2020 and January 2023 she indicated to medical professionals that she was a registered dentist — evidence included a consultant neurologist’s letter recording “I met Sarah who is a Dentist.” It rejected her denial that she would “never pose to be someone else” and found the misrepresentation misleading and dishonest; some fell while she was under an interim suspension order. Two further charges concerned redacted statements she made to the regulator in November 2021 — one by email, one before its Interim Orders Committee. The statements were found proved, but the associated misleading and dishonesty charges were not: the GDC had failed to discharge its burden of proof.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The Committee concluded Thorpe’s fitness to practise was currently impaired by reason of misconduct. It found persistent acts of serious dishonesty and noted that but for the pharmacist’s intervention the conduct may have persisted for a significant period. Mitigation was limited to previous good character and a limited apology; aggravating factors included risk of harm to the public, lack of insight, sustained and premeditated conduct, financial gain, and misrepresentations about her professional status made while under investigation and interim suspension — putting Witness 1, who had believed the prescribing-qualification story, and her patients at risk.
On insight, the determination records some acknowledgement of working outside her scope of practice and some apology, but the Committee found no real awareness of the misconduct: she blamed others and claimed she was told she could prescribe, leaving a real risk of repetition. Conditions would not have been workable and suspension insufficient, given what it called a deep-seated professional attitudinal problem. It directed erasure, finding the misconduct fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.
Current Status
Thorpe is erased from the GDC register — struck off. On 8 July 2024 the Committee ordered her name erased and her registration suspended immediately; unless she appeals, erasure takes effect 28 days after notice is deemed served, with any appeal keeping the immediate suspension in place until it concludes. The earlier interim suspension was revoked and replaced by that immediate order. The hearings service records the outcome as “Erased and Immediate suspension”.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Erasure ends Thorpe’s ability to work as a dental nurse in the UK. The Committee weighed the potential hardship to her and her family against the public interest and concluded her interests were outweighed. It records some subsequent study relating to prescribing but no evidence she properly understands her failings. Unless she successfully appeals, the direction is final.