Doctor guilty of misconduct over Pauline Cafferkey Ebola reading

A 'dishonest' doctor who admitted misleading other medics over Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey is guilty of serious misconduct, medical watchdogs have ruled.

Pauline Cafferkey had a temperature of 38.2C at Heathrow. Picture: Jon Savage

Dr Hannah Ryan took the temperature of Scottish nurse Ms Cafferkey as they waited to go through Ebola virus screening at Heathrow Airport, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard.

It revealed the nurse had a high temperature of 38.2C, a warning sign for Ebola.

But instead of raising the alarm, a lower temperature of 37.2 centigrade was recorded on a screening form and Ms Cafferkey was allowed to travel home to Scotland.

Pic Lisa Ferguson 23/01/2015 SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY EXCLUSIVE - Ebola patient Pauline Cafferkey from Scotland is today being released from Royal Free Hospital after recovering from the Ebola Virus Pauline Cafferkey, the Scottish nurse who was admitted to the Royal Free Hospital with Ebola in December 2014, has been discharged today. Ms Cafferkey has made a complete recovery and is now free of the virus, which she caught while caring for patients with Ebola in Sierra Leone. Ms Cafferkey praised the staff who cared for her at the Royal Free Hospital and said she was delighted to be going home after being treated in the high level isolation unit (HLIU) for more than three weeks. The infectious diseases team, led by Dr Michael Jacobs, has treated Ms Cafferkey since she was admitted to the hospital on 30 December 2014. Pauline asked staff to sign a Scottish Flag for her to keep and also had been requesting Diet Irn Bru when she recovered

She fell seriously ill with Ebola the next day.

Dr Ryan admitted misleading other medics when she “acquiesced” with the lower temperature being recorded on the screening form.

Five days later, Dr Ryan was found to have been “dishonest” in her account of her involvement in the incident in a telephone call with a consultant investigating the matter for Public Health England (PHE).

The medic, who qualified from Liverpool University in 2009, had denied her practise as a doctor is impaired through her actions.

Pic Lisa Ferguson 23/01/2015 SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY EXCLUSIVE - Ebola patient Pauline Cafferkey from Scotland is today being released from Royal Free Hospital after recovering from the Ebola Virus Pauline Cafferkey, the Scottish nurse who was admitted to the Royal Free Hospital with Ebola in December 2014, has been discharged today. Ms Cafferkey has made a complete recovery and is now free of the virus, which she caught while caring for patients with Ebola in Sierra Leone. Ms Cafferkey praised the staff who cared for her at the Royal Free Hospital and said she was delighted to be going home after being treated in the high level isolation unit (HLIU) for more than three weeks. The infectious diseases team, led by Dr Michael Jacobs, has treated Ms Cafferkey since she was admitted to the hospital on 30 December 2014. Pauline asked staff to sign a Scottish Flag for her to keep and also had been requesting Diet Irn Bru when she recovered

Yesterday, the three-member tribunal found against her, ruling her practise was impaired by her “serious misconduct.” Dr Bernard Herdan, chair of the panel, told Dr Ryan while her mistake was a “one-off”, it was a “grave one” and others could have been put at “unwarranted risk of harm” by Ms Cafferkey leaving Heathrow.

And her attempt later to conceal her involvement was “deeply deplorable,” the tribunal ruled.

Dr Ryan and Ms Cafferkey were part of a “selfless” group of UK medics who volunteered for dangerous and highly pressurised work in “horrendous” conditions, helping fight the outbreak in west Africa that left tens of thousands dead.

When they got back to the UK on December 28 2014 after two months away, they were “keen” to get back home to loved ones at Christmas time.

But the screening process by PHE medics at Heathrow Airport to ensure no-one brought the virus back to the UK was “shambolic”, with queues building up in the “crowded, noisy and chaotic” quarantined area, the hearing was told.

Ms Cafferkey, from Fife, was cleared by the The Nursing and Midwifery Council as her judgment at the airport had been so impaired by the developing illness she could not be found guilty of misconduct.