Nurse struck off over affair with patient

A Shropshire psychiatric nurse who gave a patient topless massages and described him to colleagues as a "stud" during a four-month affair has been struck off.

Anne Rogers-Hughes, 48, from Weston Rhyn, near Oswestry, had sex with the man twice a week at his home, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

She told colleagues he was a "stud" but took him to see a GP to ask for Viagra while she sat in the waiting room.

Speaking yesterday from her home at Weston Rhyn, Mrs Rogers-Hughes, said she knew what had happened had been unprofessional.

But she said at the time her husband had just left her and she had felt vulnerable.

She said what had happened had been mutually consensual.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing heard the 42-year-old patient, who was injured in a motorcycle accident and suffered from depression, said Rogers-Hughes was a "big girl" and he was frightened of her.

He had been her landlord and they met again when he was referred to north-west Shropshire's Community Mental Health Team in May 2007 suffering from depression.

Striking Rogers-Hughes off, panel chairman Lesley White said her actions with the patient, described as "Service User A" were "unworthy of a nurse".

"This was not an isolated incident, the relationship was maintained over a period of months."

Rogers-Hughes, who left her post in January 2008, referred the case to the NMC herself.

She was found guilty of engaging in a sexual relationship with Service User A between July and October 2007 and failing to notify managers of the affair.