A hospice nurse, Naomi Butcher, recklessly endangered patients and displayed deeply troubling prejudice during her employment at St Peter and St James Hospice. Her actions, deemed “deplorable” by a professional tribunal, culminated in a decision to remove her from the nursing register.
In a chilling incident from December 2023, Butcher made a disturbing wager with colleagues, predicting a patient’s death on Christmas Day. This callous disregard for human life foreshadowed a pattern of serious misconduct that would soon unfold.
Just months later, Butcher denied a grieving family the opportunity to say goodbye to their loved one, solely based on their ethnicity. She voiced unfounded and discriminatory beliefs about the traveller community, claiming they “burn their bodies in caravans when they die.”
A colleague, Kelly Viner, testified that she had never witnessed a family being refused visitation rights until that day. Butcher explicitly stated she wouldn’t allow the family into the hospice, adding the deeply offensive remark about their funeral practices.
The tribunal found Butcher’s actions to be a severe breach of professional conduct, causing significant emotional and psychological distress to the bereaved family. Despite admitting to many allegations, Butcher initially denied the discriminatory comments, but the panel found the claim proven due to her absence from the hearing and corroborating testimony.
Beyond the prejudice, Butcher’s clinical practice was riddled with dangerous errors. On one occasion, she administered a potentially lethal dose of Midazolam – fifty times the prescribed amount – and falsely recorded the correct dosage.
The errors weren’t isolated. Butcher also administered the wrong medication to another patient, failed to provide adequate pain relief, and neglected to properly secure controlled substances like morphine. These repeated mistakes placed patients at grave risk.
The hospice confronted Butcher about the medication errors while she was on holiday, but she swiftly resigned and went on sick leave before a full investigation could be conducted. The organization subsequently reported her conduct to the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
The tribunal determined that Butcher had shown no remorse or willingness to address the serious concerns raised about her practice. Having not engaged in frontline care since leaving the hospice, she now faces being permanently removed from the nursing register, pending the outcome of a 28-day appeal period.
Butcher, in a statement, claimed disability and family issues contributed to the errors, stating she twice requested to be removed from the register but was refused. However, the tribunal’s decision stands as a stark warning against unprofessional conduct and patient endangerment.
