A pharmacy technician who used the log-in details of a junior member of staff at a pharmacy in Sheffield to create a false Covid vaccination record for her then boyfriend and his brother has avoided removal from the register.

A General Pharmaceutical Council fitness-to-practice committee heard Holly DeSouza, who worked at Wicker Pharmacy, misled her colleague into giving her their login details for the pharmacy’s outcome-for-health patient system.

Ms DeSouza falsely told the staff member she had cousins who needed a booster and wanted to check queue times at the pharmacy and also claimed she had forgotten her own log-in details.

According to the Committee, “in March 2022, some weeks after leaving the employment of The Wicker Pharmacy,” she used her colleague’s details to access Wicker’s system and create Covid vaccination records knowing neither her boyfriend or his brother had been vaccinated.

The Committee heard that on March 7, 2022, she told the pharmacy’s superintendent she had received “an email error notification that (the) system records required correction” and on March 16, again contacted the superintendent to say she was checking her boyfriend and his brother’s records because they were coming to visit her sick grandmother but had “mistakenly put them through as vaccinated.”

However, the Committee heard Ms DeSouza did not receive any error notification, had not created the records accidently, did not access the records “to check them only” and her boyfriend and his brother did not intend to visit her grandmother.

The Committee heard she secured the log-in details because her boyfriend and his brother, who needed proof of vaccination, did not want to be vaccinated. In doing so, she provided “false explanations and/or reasons” for her actions and, as a result, the Committee found her fitness to practice was impaired.

“The dishonesty was deliberate, planned and sustained for a period of time,” the Committee said. Ms DeSouza admitted dishonesty and apologised but told the Committee her boyfriend asked her to create a false vaccine record for him, claiming he needed it to visit family overseas, which she described as “leverage.”

Ms DeSouza said he became “persistent” and “she was scared” and reported it to the police who “had not been able to help her.”

The Committee also heard she had been offered “significant sums of money” by other people to create false vaccination records but she refused because “it was morally wrong and public health was important.”

The Committee heard Ms DeSouza had promised “never to let this happen again” because she had “matured and reflected on her earlier conduct and felt disgusted with her behaviour.” It also heard she had shown remorse and apologised several times.

Ms DeSouza said her current employers at Peak Edge Primary Care knew about her FtP case but were “content to allow her to practice.”

The Committee concluded her dishonesty was deliberate, planned and sustained for a period of time and she had manipulated “a more junior member of staff.” However, it found she had reflected on her actions, apologised, shown “remorse and remediation,” was enduring “dfficult personal circumstances at the time” and had “positive references and testimonials from current employers.”

Suspension ‘punitive’ but series of conditions over 12 months issued

The Committee said “a suspension order would be disproportionate and punitive” but issued a series of conditions over a 12-month period.

These include naming and asking the GPhC to approve a senior registered pharmacy professional to act as her mentor within four weeks of the date the order taking effect; working with her mentor to draw up a personal development plan; arranging for her mentor to provide a report to the GPhC on her progress towards achieving the aims set out in her personal development plan; and giving the GPhC contact details of her current employment and the manager or persons supervising her.

The conditions also included telling the GPhC before she takes on any position; giving the GPhC details of the role and the hours she works each week, including locum or relief work; and telling the GPhC if she is subject to any disciplinary action and notifying designated people in writing of the conditions imposed on her before starting any work “for which GPhC registration is required.”