Nurse struck off for camera prank

A nurse was kicked out of the profession yesterday after she urged an assistant to put a brown paper bag over a dementia patient's head and then took a photo with her mobile phone.

Debra Phillips, 36, cut out two eyeholes and drew a smile on the bag before the care assistant placed it on the elderly man's head, it was said.



She was seen pointing her camera phone at the patient and heard saying "let's take a picture" before showing the picture to colleagues and sending it to her boyfriend, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Phillips claimed she had been playing "peek-a-boo" with the man, known as Patient A. But yesterday the NMC found her fitness to practice was impaired by reason of her misconduct.

Jillian Alderwick, the chairman of the panel, said it had no option but to strike Phillips's name from the register. She would not be allowed to return to the profession for a minimum of five years.