Vanessa Wells
Introduction
Vanessa Wells is a registered nurse formerly on the register of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), PIN 82A2187E. On 26 February 2026 an NMC Fitness to Practise Committee imposed a striking-off order after finding proved charges that she administered and received fentanyl patches without witness signatures and entered another colleague’s signature into the controlled drugs book as a witness when that colleague had not signed — conduct the panel found dishonest . The proved charges span a schedule of dates from April to September 2023 and concerned Resident JL and the home’s controlled drug records .
Background Information
Wells was registered with the NMC as a nurse under PIN 82A2187E . Her practitioner profile records the outcome “erased from the register at last register check”, lists the 26 February 2026 erasure as her most recent decision, and notes the entry was last verified against the official NMC register on 24 July 2026 . The determination identifies the setting only through the charges — care home residents and a controlled drugs book — and publishes no employer name or biographical detail beyond the PIN; both pages confine themselves to the regulatory findings .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings in this section come from a Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness-to-practise panel determination, which decided the charges on the balance of probabilities. Charges found proved are regulatory findings, not criminal convictions; nothing here is a criminal record unless the determination itself states one, and this determination states none. The dishonesty findings are the panel’s findings under that standard.
The charges centred on fentanyl and the controlled drugs book. The panel found proved that Wells administered fentanyl patches to Resident JL without a witness signature, on one or more of the dates set out in Schedule 1 of the charge — dates running from 5 April 2023 to 5 September 2023 — and that she incorrectly entered a signature of another colleague as a witness for those administrations in the controlled drugs book . The panel found the associated dishonesty charge proved: that she sought to represent that another colleague had signed as having witnessed the administration of the fentanyl patches when she knew that they had not .
The same pattern recurred on receipt and disposal. The panel found proved that she received a quantity of fentanyl without a witness signature on dates in Schedule 2 — 3 April, 5 May, 1 August and 22 August 2023 — and again entered a colleague’s signature as witness when they had not signed, dishonestly representing that they had . On 2 September 2023 she disposed of controlled drugs without a witness signature and entered a colleague’s signature as witnessing the disposal, and the panel found the associated charge proved: that she sought to represent that the colleague had signed as witness when she knew that they had not .
The determination records that fitness to practise was impaired by reason of the misconduct and that the panel imposed a striking-off order. The hearing ran from 24 February 2026, when it started, to 26 February 2026, when the decision was issued .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The published record contains no press coverage, public statements or online campaigns connected with the case; the determination page and practitioner profile confine themselves to the regulator’s findings . The concrete consequence is the loss of registration. The striking-off order removes Wells from the register on which her nursing career depended . The proved dishonesty findings — a colleague’s signature entered in an official controlled drugs record to conceal missing witness signatures around a Class A controlled drug — carry consequences beyond the register, because honesty findings follow a nurse into any future registration application . MedicWatch added the case to its record on 5 May 2026 .
Current Status
Wells is struck off the NMC register. Her practitioner profile records the outcome “erased from the register at last register check”, with the erasure decision dated 26 February 2026 and the record last verified against the official register on 24 July 2026 . The determination page notes that the regulator directed removal from the register, that the decision explains when the direction takes effect and any appeal provisions, and points readers to the official NMC register for current registration status . No appeal, later decision or restoration application appears in the published record .
Impact on Their Career/Life
The striking-off order ends Wells’s ability to practise as a nurse in the United Kingdom. The panel’s proved charges combine a controlled-drugs safety failure — fentanyl handled without the witness the law requires — with deliberate falsification of the official record, which the dishonesty charges capture . Findings of that kind are treated by the NMC as fundamentally incompatible with continued registration, and a nurse erased for dishonesty around controlled drugs faces a high bar at any future restoration hearing, which would require her to show the deficiencies have been remedied . The published record gives no information about her employment or personal circumstances after the order, and her profile records no later regulatory decisions .