Moonlighting nurse who claimed she had a twin sister to avoid detection is suspended

A nurse who claimed she had a twin sister after she was caught moonlighting in St John’s Wood while pocketing sick pay from her employers has been suspended.

The Nursing & Midwifery Council heard Rachel Makombe worked at the Wellington Hospital while claiming sick pay from The Royal Free Hospital NHS Trust.

Makombe worked within 72 hours of showing symptoms of the norovirus which meant that there was a ‘significant’ health risk to anyone she came into contact with.

She admitted all the charges against her at the NMC hearing and she has been suspended for four months.

Louise Hartley, for the NMC, said: “On February 26 last year Makombe attended work and reported to her ward manager that she had been vomiting that morning.

“On February 27 she was seen working as an agency nurse at the Wellington Hospital by Leonard Byrne, the chief nursing officer there.”

A day later Makombe and Mr Byrne crossed paths at the hospital again and he asked if he knew her.

Ms Hartley said: “The registrant told him that she had never worked at either of those trusts but that she had a twin sister who worked at the Royal Free.”

Mr Byrne later confronted Makombe and she admitted she was working while off sick.

Jane Everitt, NMC panel chair, said: “Ms Makombe’s dishonesty amounts to a breach of a fundamental tenet of the profession and an abuse of trust and it was undertaken to secure personal gain.

Conceding that Makombe was a competent nurse who had no prior complaints made about her to the NMC, she added: “It is in the public interest that service users are not permanently denied access to an experienced, caring and otherwise competent nurse who presents no real risk of harm to anyone in her care.”