Shauna McGarvey
Introduction
Shauna McGarvey is a United Kingdom nurse who was registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. In May 2026 an NMC panel at a substantive meeting found proved that on 8 November 2023 she was convicted of stealing a quantity of prescription drugs on various occasions between 3 December 2021 and 11 February 2022 at the Acute Admissions Unit of Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Scotland. The panel found her fitness to practise currently impaired by reason of health, on both public-protection and public-interest grounds, on the basis of expert psychiatric evidence that she was not fit to practise and presented a high risk of repeating the behaviour, and imposed a twelve-month suspension with a review, plus an eighteen-month interim suspension covering the appeal period .
Background Information
The case combined a criminal conviction with a health ground. Charge 1 alleged that McGarvey has or has had a health condition set out in a private schedule to the charge; charge 2a alleged the November 2023 conviction for stealing prescription drugs from the Acute Admissions Unit over the December 2021 to February 2022 period. Both charges were found proved. The determination records that Schedule 1 and parts of the determination are private, so the health condition itself is not described in the public record .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted (criminal), impairment by health. The theft conviction is a criminal finding; the fitness-to-practise impairment rests on the health ground assessed with expert psychiatric evidence. The health condition’s details are private under the determination.
The proved criminal fact is narrow and specific: on 8 November 2023 McGarvey was convicted of stealing a quantity of prescription drugs on various occasions between 3 December 2021 and 11 February 2022 at the Acute Admissions Unit, Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert. The panel treated the conviction as proved and, together with the health ground, found her fitness to practise currently impaired on both public-protection and public-interest grounds .
The impairment assessment turned on expert psychiatric evidence stated in the determination: she was not fit to practise and presented a high risk of repeating the behaviour, with limited insight. The panel’s aggravating findings included that the conduct involved theft of prescription medication from the workplace, occurred over a period of time, involved a breach of trust and dishonesty and criminal offending, carried potential risk to patients, and was accompanied by limited insight into its wider impact and insufficient evidence of sustained remediation. In mitigation the panel recorded her relevant health conditions, personal circumstances and health-related difficulties at the relevant time, and some engagement with medical assessment and testing. It imposed a twelve-month suspension with a review and an eighteen-month interim suspension covering the appeal period .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The consequences were the twelve-month suspension with a review hearing and the interim order covering the appeal period. Because the impairment was found by reason of health, the panel’s route ran through the psychiatric evidence rather than through a misconduct analysis: the high assessed repetition risk and limited insight are what carried the case to suspension despite the mitigation. The determination records no press coverage and no public statement by McGarvey, and it keeps the underlying health condition off the public record by design — the charge sheet’s Schedule 1 and parts of the determination are private .
Current Status
As determined on 8 May 2026, Shauna McGarvey is suspended from the NMC register for twelve months with a review hearing to follow, with an eighteen-month interim suspension covering the appeal period. The public record of the case consists of the proved conviction, the proved private health charge, the panel’s impairment conclusion by reason of health, and the psychiatric evidence about fitness and repetition risk; the health condition’s details are not public. The review will reassess the health ground and the risk findings . Her current registration status can be checked on the official NMC register .
Impact on Their Career/Life
The suspension removes McGarvey from nursing for its twelve-month term and ties her regulatory record to both the conviction for stealing prescription drugs from her workplace and the health-based impairment finding. The panel’s reliance on expert psychiatric evidence — not fit to practise, high repetition risk, limited insight — sets a high bar for the review, while its mitigation findings acknowledge health conditions and some engagement with medical assessment. The case sits at the intersection the NMC’s rules create between criminal conduct and health, with the public record deliberately excluding the condition itself .