Nurse struck off for humiliating colleagues

Eight witnesses, including colleagues, gave evidence at the committee hearing

A man has been banned from working as a mental health nurse after he swore at a patient and called them an "idiot".

Nicholas Footer had been working in the health outreach service in Suffolk for the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT).

A fitness to practise committee hearing of the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) concluded on Thursday, and was told he humiliated female colleagues, and made one of them feel "embarrassed, vulnerable and powerless".

The behaviour took place between 2017 and 2021.

In 2018, a colleague giving evidence at the hearing said Mr Footer had been chatting with them in an office when he decided to draw a picture of "the most unusual vagina he had seen" while he had been working on a gynaecology ward.

In 2021, a witness said he swore at a patient, shouting that all they wanted was drugs, and ordering them to "get out of my clinic".

On another occasion, a colleague said he remarked that she was a "stripper in her spare time" - a comment the NMC said he later apologised for.

Mr Footer denied some of the accusations, but the committee found all eight charges put to him were proven.

Eight witnesses, including colleagues, gave evidence on behalf of the NMC.

Mr Footer was not present at the hearing and was not represented.

The panel concluded: "To allow him to continue practising would place the public at risk of harm and undermine public confidence in the profession."

He was struck off the nursing register.

A spokesperson for EPUT said: "While we are unable to comment on individual cases, any form of sexual misconduct is unacceptable, and we will always take appropriate action in line with our policies and report concerns to the relevant regulatory body."