A North East nurse has been suspended after making multiple medication errors that saw the wrong patients being given drugs and behaving "dishonestly" with her employer. 

Samantha Dixon was working at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Trust when she made a series of drug errors, including giving antibiotics to the wrong patients, giving double doses of medicine, and giving unprescribed intravenous medication to patients, a misconduct panel report has confirmed.

After an internal investigation, disciplinary action was taken and restrictions were put on Ms Dixon to ensure further medication errors were not made - but she went on to administer tube feeds to patients in contravention with the new rules.  

She also worked for a healthcare agency and University Hospital of North Tees - without telling them about restrictions placed on her while working in Sunderland, or letting the trust know she had picked up work elsewhere. 

At a misconduct hearing, her behaviour was deemed "dishonest", and her "catalogue of medication errors" put patients at "a real risk of unwarranted harm" by a panel from the Nursing and Midwifery Council. 

After a string of errors that the NMC deemed "no one-off mistake", Ms Dixon was dismissed. 

At the hearing, the nurse "accepted that information was withheld dishonestly", and that she had "let herself, and the nursing profession down", but added that she was a "fantastic nurse that made some mistakes with the drug errors and not being truthful."

Ms Dixon added that she had "extensive experience and lots to give to the profession," and so wanted to be afforded another chance.

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The panel decided to suspend her for 12 months, barring her from practice for that time period, but did not strike her from the nursing register. 

The panel reasoned that taken together, Ms Dixon's misconduct "raise serious concerns over patient safety", and said a "large number and wide range of clinical failings and collectively amount to misconduct."

Diane Palmer, Deputy Director of Nursing at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Patient safety is absolutely at the heart of everything we do. We can confirm, as detailed in the report, that Ms Dixon no longer works for our Trust."