A 56 year old registered nurse from Wembley, Middlesex has been a 5 year caution by the NMC's Independent Conduct and Competence Committee for unprofessional behaviour towards a patient.

Emmanuel Frias was working on the out patient clinic of St Marys Hospital, Maidstone in June 2006 when he obtained patient A's contact details using the Patient Administration System.

The independent panel heard that Frias then telephoned patient A on his mobile phone and during their telephone conversation, asked if he could see him again.

The panel found that Frias' actions were motivated by his sexual interest in patient A and without any clinical justification.

Commenting on the panel's decision to issue a five year caution order, NMC spokesperson Sarah Connolly said:

"As a registered nurse, Frias should have acted in a way that justified the trust and confidence of the public and he failed to do so in acting as he did. Further, he failed to uphold and enhance the good reputation of the profession by his acts. He further failed to maintain professional boundaries and also breached confidentiality when using confidential information inappropriately obtained to his own needs. By imposing a caution order of 5 years the panel feels this reflects the serious nature of the misconduct."

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is protection of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses eligible to practice within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct. Currently the number of registrants exceeds 674,000. The Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001 (The Order), sets out the NMC's role and responsibilities.

Nursing and Midwifery Council