Struck off nurse appeals

A nurse who was struck off for giving a diabetic patient 10 times the prescribed insulin dose is having her case heard again in London.

Marie Needham, from Tisbury, Wiltshire, won the right in the High Court to have her case reheard after being removed from the nursing register in May 2002, following a hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

The charges related to a period between September 1999 and January 2000, when Ms Needham was employed as a nurse at Salisbury District Hospital.

It is alleged the 47-year-old had given patients the wrong amount of drugs intravenously.

The final mistake was made while she was under a ban preventing her from giving out drugs without supervision.

Sister Kate Purser a senior nurse at the hospital gave evidence on the first day of the new hearing in London on Monday.

She denied claims that patient safety had been put at risk to reduce waiting lists.

The hearing continues.