A nurse has been fired after trying to sell cannabis oil to a cancer patient.
Eliska Neuzilova had treated a patient while working at Queen’s Medical Center (QMC) in Nottingham in June 2018.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said it “did not maintain professional boundaries” with patients and gave “unsolicited medical advice” while involved with a company selling CBD.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the more than 100 active ingredients in cannabis. CBD, unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is not psychoactive and its products are legal in the UK.
Ms. Neuzilova, who did not attend a NMC committee misconduct hearing, had been working as an agency nurse in the QMC neuro-spinal postoperative unit at the time she met the patient, who he has since died.
The patient’s family contacted the NHS Trust at the University of Nottingham Hospitals, stating that the nurse “tried to convince [the patient] Stop eating sugar and take cannabis oil to cure your cancer. ”
He also posted a CBD oil pamphlet through the patient’s mailbox, which the panel found “equated to misuse of patient information.”
The court heard that Mrs. Neuzilova had admitted it, saying, “I knew her address from her records, so I decided to drop a pamphlet through her door.”
Ms Neuzilova said she did not want to take advantage of the promotion of cannabis oil, but the NMC committee “found it unlikely [that she] he would do his best to give her a pamphlet [the patient] that he advertised products that his company sold for purely altruistic reasons ”.
The NMC said: “The panel was aware that cannabis oil is not a standard medical treatment in the patient’s circumstances.
“Regardless of Miss Neuzilova ‘s personal beliefs, I was pleased that a health care professional advising on supplements or treatments that are not supported by medical testing is inappropriate and potentially dangerous.
“This represents a serious deviation from professional standards.
“In addition, the group determined that the patient was very vulnerable and that Miss Neuzilova was in a position of trust.
“Ms. Neuzilova’s use of the patient’s address, which she admits to having obtained in the performance of her duties as a registered nurse, in order to guide her for financial gain, was an abuse of ‘that confidence’.
She was also accused of trying to convince the patient that CBD oil would cure the cancer, but she was ruled out after the court learned that there was a lack of evidence because the patient had died.
Ms. Neuzilova also did not properly record the information on another patient’s chart and did not make sure her spinal fluid drain was working. The panel found that this made the patient in urgent need of medical attention.
