A NURSE has been struck off for withholding tobacco from a Chester care home resident and “using force” to stop him entering the lounge.

Janet Elizabeth Kirk had been working at the BUPA-run Crawford’s Walk nursing home on Lightfoot Street in Hoole when the incidents took place in 2015.

The facility was the subject of an investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches in 2017 and has since changed operators.

Mrs Kirk did not attend a hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) Fitness to Practice Committee when it was decided she should be struck from the nursing register last month.

Documents published on the case reveal that on May 31, 2015, she “withheld tobacco from resident A”.

On the same day she “used physical force to prevent Resident A from entering the lounge area of Crawfords Walk Nursing Home” which “caused an injury to Resident A”.

Other incidents that raised concern were not documenting that another resident had taken a fall and making a succession of “inaccurate entries” to residents’ care plans while working at Oaklands Nursing Home in Littleton.

The committee reported that Mrs Kirk had been suspended but had had little communication with the NMC in the meantime.

It was understood she had been suffering with an illness – although no evidence had been submitted – and had no intention of continuing to work as a nurse.

She eventually wrote two emails to the organisation last month but the committee felt she had a “declining level of insight” into the effect her actions had on her patients, colleagues and profession.

The committee report states: “The panel noted that Mrs Kirk has, at best, shown limited remorse for her misconduct and that her email of 8 April 2019 only related to the effect that the incidents had upon her.”

It continues: “The panel therefore determined that it was necessary to take action to prevent Mrs Kirk from practising in the future and concluded that the only sanction that would adequately protect the public and serve the public interest was a striking off order.”