‘Sniffer dog’: Pharmacy technician who took cocaine ‘every morning’ suspended
A “brazen” pharmacy technician has been suspended after telling his workplace that he was late to work because he had “used a line of cocaine”.
Pharmacy technician Tom Hennebry, registration number 5040378, has been suspended from the register for six months after being “found in possession of two wraps of cocaine during a workplace search”, General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) documents reveal.
Hennebry began working as a pharmacy technician at St Pancras Hospital in November 2019, the committee heard during a fitness-to-practise (FtP) hearing last week (September 18-19).
The hearing document said that while at work on May 10 2023, Hennebry was “picked out by a ‘sniffer’ dog handler team”, whose search revealed “a red tube-like object used for sniffing” and “two wraps of a substance”.
It added that while initially Hennebry “stated he found them on the ground of the streets on his way to work”, he ultimately “confirmed that they were wraps of cocaine and were for personal use” so “the police were called and [he] was arrested”.
The regulator accepted that he had “not contested the allegations” and “sought help from his GP and an addiction charity”.
And it heard that “he was good with the staff...settled really quickly and seemed to have good people skills and befriended a lot of people” – but he “struggled when the ward turned electronic”.
But it stressed that “taking Class A drugs into the hospital workplace is especially brazen and could suggest attitudinal problems at the time”.
“Every morning”
When asked by the police, “he confirmed that he had used a line of cocaine and said that was why he was late to come into work that morning”, the GPhC heard.
Witnesses present during the sniffer search told the committee that Hennebry admitted to taking “drugs every morning [before he] came into work”.
When asked by his employers whether he “took cocaine on trust premises”, Hennebry answered that he “possibly” did so when he had finished working, in “one of the bigger toilets”.
“There [had] been suspicions before May 10 about use of drugs within [the trusts’] premises that was reported,” the committee heard.
After pleading guilty “at the first opportunity” to possession of a controlled Class A drug at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court, for which he received a “financial penalty” of £200 plus costs and the victim surcharge, Hennebry reported himself to the council, it said.
But he told the committee that he would “not be able to attend” his FtP hearing as he was “in an intensive management course over the next month”.
He added that he “planned to leave the profession” and accepted that the “process would still go ahead”.
“Poor judgement”
The GPhC noted that there was “no evidence of actual mistakes or poor patient care by the registrant” and that Hennebry had “no previous FtP matters with the council”.
“Evidence from the hospital is that [he] had been a good pharmacy technician in the past, although his performance became variable over time,” it added.
But it said that Hennebry’s actions “appear to have built up for some time” and that “the actions of May 10 2023 do not appear to be a one-off event”.
Hennebry’s decision to bring “two wraps of cocaine and drugs paraphernalia onto hospital premises during working hours” showed “poor judgement to other hospital colleagues and had the potential to undermine safe and effective patient care”, it found.
He had “not exercised his professional judgement to seek help for drug use or remove himself from the workplace” and he did not provide an apology or “a detailed reflection on his conduct”, it added.
The GPhC concluded that his “conduct fell far short of the standards” and that he had breached “fundamental principles of the profession”.
It found a six-month suspension “appropriate to mark the seriousness of the misconduct and conviction…given that the misconduct is, in principle, remediable”, it said.
“Although the registrant did not engage with this principal hearing, a removal order at this stage may be premature,” it added.
Read the determination in full here.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact Pharmacist Support by emailing [email protected] or calling 0808 168 2233/0808 168 5133 for free
