Nurse struck off after 'elaborate' campaign of lies

Ms Hill worked at the trust in Southampton when the "sustained and elaborate" campaign happened

A nurse who fraudulently offered two friends jobs that did not exist and then spun an extraordinary web of lies to cover her deceit has been struck off.

Kathryn Hill pretended she had been promoted and could hire staff at an NHS trust but when jobs did not materialise, she forged letters, including one purporting to be from its chief executive.

She later invented a legal case, forging letters from a non-existent lawyer, and admitted being lent £90,000 by one of the friends after lying her bank account was frozen.

The University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust said Ms Hill was suspended in December 2022 and then sacked after an investigation in March 2023.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said Ms Hill’s "sustained and elaborate" campaign showed a "clear depth" to her dishonesty that was “fundamentally incompatible” with her retaining her registration.

Ms Hill worked as a neuro nurse practitioner at the trust when in or around 2020 she told friends she had been promoted to the position of care group manager.

A friend was encouraged to apply as a personal assistant and another as a coordinator. Neither job existed.

She fabricated letters pretending they were from the chief executive about the jobs and then by April 2021 said she had been offered a job at the University of Chicago.

Ms Hill also invented lawyers, bank statements and emails to back up the lie that there was a court case relating to the friends' jobs.

Other fictitious bank documents were created that said one friend would get the loaned £90,000 paid back, along with another lie that Macmillan Cancer Support was granting Ms Hill £72,675.

“The level of complexity, and increasingly detailed and sustained dishonesty, which became grandiose over time, indicates a high risk of repetition,” the NMC added.

She admitted a total of 64 charges ahead of a hearing, which ended on 7 August.

Gaily Byrne, University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust’s chief nursing officer, said: “The trust expects all staff to exemplify the highest standards of behaviour and personal conduct, in line with the values of our organisation.

“Kathryn Hill was suspended from her role as a nurse practitioner in December 2022, immediately after we were informed by the NMC of the allegations made against her.

“Following a full internal investigation and due process, her employment was terminated in March 2023.”