A nurse from Northern Ireland who administered Botox treatment to patients in Co Donegal has been suspended for three months by a fitness to practice committee of the UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council.
When enforcement inspectors from the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) arrived at the ACE Clinic in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, in August 2019, they found Anne Marie Kelly carrying out a Botox procedure at the rear of the premises.
They told the UK-registered nurse that the medication was not to be administered and that all the medication on the premises was to be seized.
The inspectors found that the names on the medication were patients of Ms Kelly’s from Strabane, Co Tyrone, that they were not authorised for use in the Republic, contained UK licensing numbers, and were, therefore, not legally on the market in the Republic.
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Ms Kelly co-operated with the inspectors and “appeared surprised” that she was not authorised to administer Botox in the Republic, according to the committee’s decision, made recently following hearings that concluded in January.
She told the inspectors she had administered Botox to 18 patients over three visits to the Letterkenny clinic and had only recently begun administering aesthetic treatments.
In the Republic, only doctors, dentists, and registered nurses operating under the direction of a doctor, can administer Botox.
The nurse admitted to a number of charges including that she sought to represent medication as intended for patients in her care in Northern Ireland when she intended to use the medication in the treatment of patients in the Republic.
The committee decided that Ms Kelly was guilty of serious misconduct and dishonesty but that no actual harm was caused to patients and that patients were not put at risk of unwarranted harm.
It decided the risk of repetition was very low and that Ms Kelly’s fitness to practice was impaired on public interest grounds only, with no public protection concerns arising from its decision.
The hearing was told that in August 2019 Ms Kelly had only recently begun working in aesthetic treatments, regretted her actions, and has not been self-employed since.
“I have never returned to working in aesthetics…I made a serious error in judgement, and this never will happen again,” she said. “I am devastated to that I made such serious errors of judgement after thirty years of an unblemished record.”
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