A NURSE has been struck off because she did not speak English effectively and would not take lessons.

Colleagues of West Sussex nurse Agata Bulka had to “speak slowly to ensure she was able to understand what was said”, a disciplinary panel found.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council Fitness to Practise Committee heard how colleagues had to repeat what they said so that she could understand.

It found that although there was no harm to patients, the risk would arise if she could not understand instructions and others were not around to help her.

The nurse had been told in a previous disciplinary meeting that she must undertake English lessons.

The home at which she worked, which was excluded from the report, offered to pay for the lessons.

But a later meeting found that she had failed to attend the classes and had not passed the required

IELTS (International English Language Testing System) test.

She had also failed to attend the meeting and all the letters sent by the committee had been returned to sender.

The report stated: “Miss Bulka’s colleagues had had to repeat what they said to her, and to speak slowly to ensure she was able to understand what was being said.

“The panel was of the view that it was through the efforts of Miss Bulka’s colleagues on duty at the home that the risk of patient harm had been mitigated.

“But it determined the risk of patient harm remains high if circumstances arose in which Miss Bulka was unable to seek further clarification if she was unclear on instructions or unable to engage effectively with patients.

“The home had supported Miss Bulka and were

willing to pay for her to attend an English language course.

“Miss Bulka has chosen not to take up this offer and resigned from the home.

“The panel has no evidence before it that Miss Bulka has remediated the concern around her verbal English language knowledge

and therefore it determined the risk of repetition was high.”

The panel noted that she failed to attended a secondary hearing and they had received no evidence of engagement from Miss Bulka.

As a result, the decision was made to strike the nurse from the register.

The panel said in a statement: “The panel therefore concluded that there remains a risk of repetition and Miss Bulka’s fitness to practise continues to be impaired, both by reason of her misconduct and her English language skills, on public protection grounds.

“The panel reached the view that Miss Bulka’s misconduct, namely her persistent and consistent failure to co-operate and engage with her regulator, had become fundamentally incompatible with remaining on the register.”

The striking-off order will take effect next month.