Pauline Cafferkey accused of concealing temperature in Ebola checks
Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey is facing disciplinary action over allegations she concealed her temperature during checks on her return to the UK.
Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey is facing disciplinary action over allegations she concealed her temperature during checks on her return to the UK.
The Scottish medical worker, who was infected with the deadly virus while working in Sierra Leone in 2014, is alleged to have given dishonest answers to medical staff during screening at Heathrow on her return.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council, which has been investigating Ms Cafferkey's conduct, alleges that she "allowed an incorrect temperature to be recorded'' on December 29, 2014 and "intended to conceal from Public Health England staff that you had a temperature higher than 38C''.
Registered nurse Ms Cafferkey travelled to the West African country at the height of the Ebola crisis to help the sick.
She returned to London and then travelled on to Scotland before being diagnosed, and spent almost a month being treated in an isolation unit at London's Royal Free Hospital.
The volunteer recovered but was readmitted to hospital twice after suffering complications linked to the disease, and at one stage fell critically ill.
The NMC alleges she did not tell Public Health England screening staff who took her temperature at the airport that she had recently taken paracetamol and she left the area without reporting her true temperature.
A hearing on Ms Cafferkey's fitness to practise is set to take place in Edinburgh next month.
The NMC has the power to strike workers off the professional register.