A HEALTH visitor has been punished for a string of failings in the care of children.

Michelle Sarah O'Beirne, who worked as a health visitor in Hyndburn, was brought before a fitness to practise committee hearing by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

The hearing found she made the errors between June 2014 and October 2016 while working for Lancashire Care Foundation Trust in a team of community nurses and child support workers.

Her caseload in the Hyndburn Central area consisted of service users and children up to the age of five years, including those who had 'additional health visiting needs'.

Failings included O'Beirne failing to complete two primary visits within target and failing to complete eight to 12-month developmental checks for four children.

She was also found to have carried children's records in her bag rather than in a lockable briefcase and failed to put contact sheets in the records of two people.

The hearing was also told how O'Beirne had failed to update her records so that children who had reached 12 months of age continued to show on her caseload.

While a baby who had died continued to show as one of her patients.

A panel of the NMC imposed a 'conditions of practice' order on O'Beirne's registration for 18 months.

Conditions include that O'Beirne must not work as a health visitor, while she must tell the NMC within 14 days of any nursing appointment (whether paid or unpaid) she accepts within the UK or elsewhere, and provide the NMC with contact details of her employer.

The NMC said: "The panel determined that a conditions of practice order would protect the public, maintain confidence in the nursing profession and in the NMC as regulator, and it would declare and uphold proper standards of conduct and performance."

A spokesman for Lancashire Care said O'Beirne no longer worked for the trust.

He said: “There were issues with the professional conduct of this person, which were dealt with appropriately and this member of staff no longer works for the trust.

"Our main priority was to ensure that there was no negative impact on the children within her caseload and we made the appropriate follow up checks to ensure that this was the case.”