A chiropodist who removed part of a prisoner’s toe without their consent has been struck off.
Lady Deborah Knight Griffiths, who had been a qualified chiropodist since 2008, carried out the procedure on the prisoners foot at HMP Forest Bank in Salford, Greater Manchester, on 13 November 2020.
A disciplinary hearing found she had “performed an invasive procedure outside the scope of her practice upon an individual who was acutely vulnerable and thereby placed him at real risk of harm” and “she had not maintained or developed the skills to do so.”
She had been hired by First Steps Podiatry Ltd and was employed to provide foot care by Sodexo, the private operators of the prison. The prisoner she treated in this instance was “in poor health and suffered from diabetes” and had toes amputated previously.
In 2021, Knight Griffiths was suspended after a tribunal which found her fitness to practice was impaired. The Health and Care Professionals Tribunal Service (HCPTS) hearing held last week confirmed she will be struck off from February 14.
The hearing found she had omitted 11 pre-operative checks before performing the procedure – including failing to take a blood pressure reading, performing an X-ray and obtaining written or informed consent.
She was also found to have kept no written records of the diabetic inmate’s treatment or any reference to the dose of the local anaesthetic used.
Knight Griffiths also failed to maintain “accurate and complete records” for the patient, inappropriately stitched the patient’s wound with a suture and “did not obtain a tissue sample or wound swab prior to the procedure” the hearing revealed.
The incident was reported a month later by Sodexo to the Health Care Professionals Council.
The hearing found the operation not only happened without consent, but also should have taken place in a hospital “or as part of a hospital’s diabetes multidisciplinary team”.
“In respect of particulars, you have worked beyond your scope of practice,” Knight Griffiths was told by the panel.
The tribunal made its decision on Friday and ruled against an attempt from her to be voluntarily removed from the practitioners register because she did not accept the allegations made against her.
The Panel considered that the concerns about the Registrant’s fitness to practise were “too serious to take no further action”.
Knight Griffiths’ claimed on Linkedin she qualified in 2008 and began working at Forest Bank in 2016.