Sithembile Sibanda, registration number 2220573, has been struck off the register by a General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) committee for “fabricating” assessments while on the general practice pathway at the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE).
In a remote hearing on December 16-23, the committee heard that she “submitted two CPPE clinical assessments that had not been completed under the supervision of a clinical mentor or clinical supervisor”.
Read more: Pharmacist suspended for sending Xanax ‘to Africa for charitable causes’
Sibanda was also found to have “invented reasons for absences” while working at an NHS Trust alongside her studies, as well as making “widespread clinical failures” and “errors when prescribing medication” and failing to keep “adequate records” of medication reviews.
However, an allegation that she “deliberately exaggerated the extent of [her] CPPE training commitments, in order to take time off from work” was found “not proved”, hearing documents said.
Read more: Superintendent’s FtP restored after patient data, methadone and syringe ‘fly-tipping’
The regulator’s fitness-to-practice (FtP) committee accepted that Sibanda had a “good start to her employment” at the Northamptonshire Health NHS Foundation Trust.
But it stressed that she had “a pattern of dishonesty spanning a sustained period over a few months” and that the “risk for patient harm was high in this case as a result of failing to properly care for patients”.
The committee also highlighted that the registrant did not attend the proceedings or “respond to any of the Council’s communications”.
“Falsification of documents”
Sibanda’s education supervisor first raised concerns “relating to the falsification of documents on the CPPE primary care pharmacy education pathway (PCPEP)” after an assessment form listed a pharmacy technician as Sibanda’s clinical mentor, despite them “not [being] eligible to be a clinical mentor”, the document said.
After other assessment documentation was examined for “further anomalies”, it was found that “the handwriting in the MR-CAT form that should be completed by the clinical supervisor was similar to the registrant’s own handwriting”, it added.
Read more: Pharmacy tech struck off for rape of ‘vulnerable’ 13-year-old girl
Sibanda’s supervisor confirmed that “the handwriting was not his” and she admitted to filling out the forms due to her clinical supervisor being “uncontactable and unreachable” at the time, it said.
The committee heard that while she had already passed these assessments, she was “required to upload the completed assessments to the learner e-portfolio to progress”.
As she did not have “immediate access” to these, “she falsified documentation for the purpose of completing the CPPE pathway quickly”, it heard.
“Unexplained” absences
During her studies, Sibanda worked at both the Northamptonshire Health NHS Foundation Trust’s primary care network (PCN) at Rushden Medical Centre and the Saffron Group Practice, according to the document.
But the committee found that she had “provided incorrect reasons as to why she was uncontactable during a period of sick leave” while working at the trust in October 2022.
Read more: ‘Gross incompetence’: High Court orders GPhC to reconsider FtP case
She told a colleague that this was “due to her personal and work phone being damaged by a water leak at Rushden Medical Centre” but when her colleague investigated this, they were informed that the centre was not “aware of” any leak.
Also while at the trust, it was alleged that “the hours the registrant declared that she had out-of-practice training were in excess of her actual commitments,” the committee heard.
Read more: LloydsDirect pharmacist suspended for attempting to smuggle tramadol from warehouse
Evidence presented to the council by a colleague stated that Sibanda had “unexplained [absences] for all or part of the day on 76 dates” between September 2021 and October 2022.
While she had informed the trust that on 20 of these, she was “undertaking CPPE training”, the CPPE said that there was either “no training” held on these dates “or the training hours were less than…advised by the registrant”.
Read more: ‘Harass, intimidate, retaliate’: ‘Vile’ pharmacist suspended for sexual assault
The committee, however, found that “although there are absences for part of all of 76 days, these were not all necessarily declared as out-of-practice training; many were simply unaccounted for” and could have included tasks such as repeat prescription reviews, clinical audits or other “miscellaneous tasks”.
It concluded that “on a balance of probabilities, the hours the registrant declared that she had out-of-practice training were not in excess of her actual commitments”.
“Prescribing error”
Meanwhile, Sibanda was also found to have made a “prescribing error” in March 2023 when she “dispensed both Ramipril and Candesartan” to a patient, despite them having a “documented allergy to Ramipril”.
The committee stressed that there was a “negative pharmacodynamic interaction between Ramipril and Candesartan” and that the drugs “should not be prescribed together” but did acknowledge that this fact did “not appear to be disputed” by Sibanda.
Read more: GP pharmacist warned after prescribing when ‘medically unfit to work’
The regulator found that she had also “failed to keep adequate records” of medication reviews, failed to order blood tests and “missed other minimum requirements that should have been carried out”, among other failings.
She missed “opportunities to de-prescribe [or] reduce medications for patients”, failed to “ask patients sufficient lifestyle questions” and failed to “conduct blood pressure checks where [she] should have”, the committee found.
“Thoroughly sorry”
The regulator accepted that Sibanda “provided an explanation for her actions...and made some admissions to the fabrication” of assessments.
“I do admit that I fabricated the forms and deeply regret my actions and realise how this is unacceptable behaviour and am thoroughly sorry I behaved in this manner,” Sibanda wrote in a reflective piece.
Read more: Superintendent’s FtP restored after ‘home brew’ drunk delivery van crash
Referring to a form that she had submitted with the wrong clinician’s name on it, she acknowledged “how unprofessional this was” and offered her “sincere apologies to this misconduct that I deeply regret doing and demonstrated lack of insight”.
The regulator also noted her “previous history of no regulatory problems”.
“Lack of remorse”
But the GPhC stressed that Sibanda’s reflection was “very limited” and was only written when “faced with a stark and fairly immediate choice of being failed”.
Sibanda failed to “[take] responsibility” for her actions and showed “a complete lack of engagement, lack of remorse and no willingness to make amends,” the regulator said.
Read more: ‘Sniffer dog’: Pharmacy technician who took cocaine ‘every morning’ suspended
Furthermore, the committee found that Sibanda’s “conduct and behaviour presented an actual risk of harm to patients given the volume and frequency of failings” – including kidney damage, strokes and heart attacks.
While it “gave serious consideration to a suspension given her good start to her employment at the Trust...her performance deteriorated rapidly without signs of improvement,” it said.
Read more: GPhC fails timeliness evaluation again as performance ‘deteriorates’
It decided that removal from the register was “the appropriate sanction” for Sibanda as she could “no longer be relied upon” and there would be a “significant risk posed to the public” if she were allowed to continue practising.
“Removal is necessary to maintain public confidence in the profession,” the committee said.
Read the determination in full here.
