Jailed Flintshire Nurse Struck Off Register

A nurse who tried to kill two elderly patients has been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Barbara Salisbury, from Flintshire, was jailed for five years in 2004 for two counts of attempted murder at Leighton Hospital in Crewe, Cheshire.

A professional conduct committee found her guilty of two misconduct counts and removed her name from the register.

The committee, sitting in London ruled that “no lesser sanction would be appropriate” for her crimes.

The panel chairwoman Gill Barker said Salisbury had committed a “terrible crime” when her duty was to protect vulnerable patients.

She added: “The committee has decided to remove the respondent’s name from the register with immediate effect.

“Our reasons are that attempting to murder two defenceless patients was such a serious crime that no lesser sanction would be appropriate.”

Salisbury injected two elderly patients at Leighton Hospital with diamorphine to hasten their deaths and clear beds on her ward, the court was told.

In March 2002 the ward sister gave the drug to 88-year-old May Taylor when she did not need it, the court found.

Only weeks earlier, she gave 92-year-old Frank Owen, who had dementia, diamorphine for which the court found there was “no justification at all”.

She also told two junior hospital staff to lie Mr Owen down flat so his lungs would fill up and he would die.

David Glendinning for the Nursing and Midwifery Council read into the record the comments of Mr Justice Pitchford at the 2004 trial.

He told Chester Crown Court: “Your duty and your trust was one of care towards your patients and under the direction of the doctors the respect for and the preservation of human life.

“The jury has found that in the case of two elderly patients who were nearing their end you broke that duty and abused that trust by attempting to hasten their deaths.”

Salisbury, who was originally from from Pontybodkin, was not present at Tuesday’s misconduct hearing and was not represented.