A NURSE is set to be punished by her professional watchdog after she made a series of medication errors involving patients at care homes in Burnley and Nelson.

But Elizabeth Gallagher, who worked at Andrew Smith House and Dove Court, has not been sanctioned by the Nursing and Midwifery Council after she claimed to be unwell.

The NMC chairman said Gallagher would remain under an interim suspension until her case could be finalised in London on March 3 and 4.

Gallagher has admitted not administering medication to two patients at Andrew Smith House, and two charges relating to not informing management at Dove Court, in August 2011, that she had been dismissed from the first care home.

But she denied a series of other medication errors, at the two homes, between June and November 2011, during the NMC proceedings.

The committee found the case against her proved in relation to falsely recording that a patient had taken a number of tablets, ranging from aspirin to carbocisteine, on two occasions at the Nelson home.

And she was found guilty of failing to ensure a third patient’s notes were sent with her during a hospital admission, then failing to notify the senior citizen’s family of the development.

Similar medication charges, including failing to administer pills and then recording on their medical charts that they had been given, were also found proved.

But she was cleared of two further medication charges, and a related dishonesty offence, after the panel ruled she was not responsible for missing medication on those occasions.

Gallagher, who said she was unwell for a two-day hearing in London last Thursday and Friday, told the NMC that she wished to be represented by the ‘Pro Bono Barristers Society’ before her case is resolved.