A nurse who secretly filmed the neglect of elderly patients will find out today if she is to be banned from the profession.
Margaret Haywood, 58, was yesterday found guilty of misconduct at a hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council in central London.
Ms Haywood admitted breaching patient confidentiality, but said that she agreed to film undercover inside the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton to highlight the awful conditions on the wards.
The footage from Ms Haywood's hidden cameras was shown in a BBC Panorama programme Undercover Nurses, screened in July 2005.
The programme's producer Elizabeth Bloor told the tribunal that “there was an over-arching public interest” in the broadcast.
She said: “We needed to see what was really happening so we felt our only option really was to ask somebody to go undercover on a ward and that person really should be a nurse.
She added: “Given that most of the complaints we had were to do with medical care, we thought that would be an appropriate route.”
Ms Haywood, who has been a nurse for more than 20 years, agreed to work on the programme and took shifts at the Royal Sussex Hospital between November 2004 and May 2005.
The panel will today decide whether Ms Haywood, of Liverpool, will face sanctions for her role in the expose.
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