A NURSE who fell asleep during a night shift has been suspended for four months.

Ann Leeming was working for Bolton NHS Primary Care Trust on the Bolton Community Unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital when the incident took place between April 14 and 15, 2010.

Healthcare assistant Debra Jeffries was forced to wake Leeming for help with a patient who was vomiting.

Leeming had been working an 11-hour night shift with another nurse and Ms Jeffries on the acute ward, which deals with patients who had previously been admitted to accident and emergency.

Staff are allowed a one-hour break during the shift, during which they are not allowed to sleep and only one nurse can take a break at any time.

But a three-day Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing in Manchester was told that one of the nurses, Susan Sutcliffe, went for a break at midnight and slept in a room for five-and-a-half hours.

During this time, Leeming, who was left with just Ms Jeffries on the ward, pulled up a reclining chair, got a pillow and towel and went to sleep.

She was woken by Ms Jeffries an hour later as she needed help giving a patient medication, but 10 minutes later she went back to sleep for almost two hours.

The hearing listened to evidence from Ms Jeffries, Ms Sutcliffe and Jacqueline Bliss, an operational manager for NHS Bolton, and concluded it was a case of serious misconduct and Leeming’s fitness to practice was impaired.

Leeming, who did not attend the hearing and left the Trust after the incident, had denied the charge.

The PCT confirmed Ms Sutcliffe had been through an internal disciplinary process following the incident.

An NHS Bolton spokesman said: “Following this incident, both nurses referred to in the report went through the PCT’s internal disciplinary process.

“However, Ms Leeming left our employment before this could be completed, and was consequently referred to the NMC as it was an unresolved disciplinary issue.”