Shropshire Star

Dishonest Shropshire nurse struck off register for lying

A nurse working in Shropshire has been struck off for lying and being dishonest.

Published
A male nurse

Niana Panickar, a registered nurse, ran Kare Plus Shropshire, which provided nursing staff to public and private healthcare sectors, including the NHS, other large private hospitals, local councils and private clients.

But at a hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the disgraced nurse was told he is no longer allowed to practice and has had his nursing licence revoked.

Papers put before misconduct panel members Timothy Cole, Claire Rashid and Michael Glickman claimed that Mr Panickar, who was the Shropshire franchisee holder, had lied about a member of his nursing staff, saying she was qualified and registered to work.

But in fact their certificate to practice had expired in 2016 and he provided false and misleading information to the NMC.

Lapsed

The report added: “Your conduct was dishonest in that you provided this false and/or misleading information knowing that Nurse A had worked shifts for Kare Plus after her registration had lapsed.

"Your conduct was dishonest in that you provided this false and/or misleading information knowing that Nurse A did not work as a health care assistant after her registration had lapsed. Your conduct was dishonest in that you were representing to the NMC that you were Nurse A’s current employer when you knew that was untrue as your franchisee licence expired in October 2016.”

Mr Panickar did not attend the hearing.

Rebecca Richardson, case presenter for the NMC said that honesty was a ‘bedrock of nursing practice’ and that Mr Panickar failed to uphold this by behaving dishonestly.

She added that Mr Panickar showed a ‘disregard’ for the NMC, and its regulatory process by providing false and misleading information on multiple occasions.

Standards

She said that Mr Panickar’s conduct fell far below the standards expected of a registered nurse and of someone in his position as a franchisee with responsibility for managing other registered nurses

The panel noted that by allowing Nurse A to work as a registered nurse when he knew or ought to have known that her registration had lapsed, Mr Panickar put patients at risk of harm.

The panel considered that such conduct clearly brought the nursing profession into disrepute. They said: “Mr Panickar behaved dishonestly by providing false and misleading information to the NMC. The panel recognised that honesty is a fundamental tenet of the profession, which Mr Panickar clearly breached.”

An interim 18-month suspension order was imposed on Mr Panickar to allow for the possibility of an appeal to be made and determined.