A nursing home matron accused of abusing dying patients has told an inquiry the allegations were "absolutely horrifying".

Staff at Melrose Nursing Home in Wykeham Road, Worthing, claim Junia Woolgar, 50, adminstered drugs without a GP's consent and withheld fluids from terminally ill patients.

Miss Woolgar told the UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting's professional conduct committee there was "simply no way" she would administer medication with out a doctor's authority.

She added "I can't understand why these allegations have been made. My first concern has always been for the comfort of my patients."

She admitted, however, that she had been in "absolute panic" when told that the local health authority was investigating her drugs records.

She told the committee she had tried to fill in the details in the records accurately but in her "state of anxiety" might have got the dates of some drug administrations wrong.

She said she had been caring for patients in extreme pain, many of whom had been admitted to the home to die from a nearby hospice.

One in particular, Mrs 'A', had been screaming in agony.

A nursing sister had told her that she did not believe that the level of Mrs A's pain was being controlled properly and she had thought she was authorised by her GP to increase the dose.

Miss Woolgar is accused of administering controlled drugs to nine terminally ill patients without a GP's consent. Similar allegations against four other patients have been withdrawn.

Miss Woolgar is also charged with failing to maintain adequate records in relation to seven patients, withholding fluids from dying patients and roughly handling two patients when fitting catheters, causing them to bleed.

She is further accused of causing distress to three patients and falsifying the case notes of a dying female patient.

The hearing continues