A pharmacist who worked for a hospital trust and primary care network has been struck off after a fitness to practise hearing established she had falsified coursework documentation, misled colleagues and made unsafe prescribing decisions. 

Pharmacist Sithembile Sibanda chose not to attend the videolink FtP hearing, which took place from 16-23 December, and did not otherwise engage with the case against her, with an email containing the FtP case papers left unopened by her.

The FtP hearing established that Ms Sibanda had in February 2023 submitted clinical assessments as part of her coursework for CPPE’s Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP) that had not been completed under the supervision of a clinical mentor or clinical supervisor.

In the case of two assessments, she was found to have dishonestly listed the name of a clinical supervisor who had not completed the assessments with her.  In a meeting with management, she admitted to having “fabricated the forms” due to “time pressures” and acknowledged this was “unacceptable behaviour”.

Ms Sibanda was also found to have misled colleagues at Northamptonshire Health NHS Foundation Trust about why she was not contactable while on sick leave in October 2022 in that she falsely claimed a water leak at a medical centre where she was working had damaged both her personal phone and one used for work. A colleague at Rushden Medical Centre informed the Trust there had been no water leak.

Separately, in a probation meeting with medical centre staff she claimed to have finished working at the Trust in April 2023 when in fact she had been on sick leave from October 20, 2022 until her last date on January 10, 2023. 

The FtP committee also established that she had dispensed ramipiral and candesartan to a patient with a documented allergy to ramipril and despite the fact the two medicines have a negative interaction when taken together, although unlike some of the other allegations against her this was not considered to amount to misconduct. 

A PCN colleague expressed significant concerns about Ms Sibanda’s patient consultations and related record keeping. For example, one patient on ACE inhibitors presented with high blood pressure but there were no recorded follow up questions and no plan implemented to assess the patient’s blood pressure over time, contrary to clinical guidance. 

The FtP committee heard that although Ms Sibanda had had a “good start” when first employed by the Trust, there was a “deterioration” in her work and her conduct and attendance began to suffer. On some occasions she was allegedly not conducive to her employers’ attempts to resolve issues around her poor attendance and did not respond when communication was attempted by email, post and phone calls.  

“The actions of the registrant seem to follow a pattern that when more light is shed on her conduct and behaviour, the more she attempts to escape it, having left two employments to avoid a critique,” said the FtP committee, adding that she had “tendered her resignation to both her employers essentially immediately upon them seeking to hold a meeting with her to see what might be going on”.

In light of several proven instances of dishonest behaviour and Ms Sibanda’s failure to demonstrate adequate insight and remorse or remedial actions taken, the FtP committee found that serious breaches of the GPhC’s professional standards for pharmacists had been breached. 

“The registrant has had over 18 months to provide an explanation for her actions; this has not been forthcoming despite numerous occasions for an explanation to be given,” said the committee, which decided that a suspension “would not adequately protect the public” as she had “shown no signs in willing to engage in improving her practice”. 

It therefore decided to remove her from the register 28 days after notifying her of its decision, with interim measures put in place to prevent her from practising during that four-week period.