I was made a scapegoat by officials, says ebola virus nurse
EBOLA survivor Pauline Cafferkey has said she was made a ‘scapegoat’ by officials who accused her of putting thousands of lives at risk.
The children’s nurse almost died twice after contracting the deadly virus in Sierra Leone.
Miss Cafferkey, 40, claims that watchdog Public Health England (PHE) struggled to cope with the large number of volunteers returning to the UK.
She described chaotic scenes at Heathrow Airport and said she was cleared to fly to Glasgow by officials who couldn’t reach an infectious diseases specialist because they had the wrong number.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Miss Cafferkey said: ‘I went out there to help save lives but I came back to a system that failed. I was made a scapegoat for a catalogue of errors.
‘PHE were entirely responsible. They, not me, put public lives at risk by allowing me to fly before they had an opinion from an infectious diseases official.’
Last week, Miss Cafferkey, of Cambuslang, near Glasgow, faced a hearing by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) following an 18-month investigation and could have been struck off.
She was accused of covering up signs that she had the virus by attempting to conceal her high temperature. It was also claimed that she had acted recklessly by leaving a screening area at Heathrow without permission.
After the two-day hearing she was cleared of any wrongdoing when an independent panel ruled she was in a ‘diminished medical state’ and ‘swept along with events’.
‘It’s been awful being thought of as dishonest,’ she said. ‘It’s like my reputation had been destroyed, even though I knew I had done nothing wrong.
‘For a long time, I felt guilty about having walked out of the screening area. In my mind, I really thought I was to blame for something that could have put the public at risk.
‘But as the investigation went on, I realised that, no, it was a catalogue of errors by PHE that brought us all to this.’
Miss Cafferkey returned home in December 2014 after six weeks at the centre of the ebola outbreak.
Along with dozens of other NHS staff, she was given a port-of-entry ebola health assessment form which was to be filled in by official medical staff.
‘I would like to say something positive about the screening unit but I can’t,’ she said. ‘They were not prepared. There weren’t enough screening kits. It was hot, busy and disorganised.’
Miss Cafferkey said screening
‘It was hot, busy and disorganised’
staff led the group into a small room and told them they could take each other’s temperatures.
The nurse said she was ‘feeling fine’ and was shocked when her temperature was above normal.
‘My jaw dropped in surprise,’ Miss Cafferkey said. ‘I just automatically reached for the paracetamol in my bag without thinking.’
She claimed she didn’t know someone had recorded an incorrect temperature, and simply followed the others to security. After reach- ing international arrivals, Miss Cafferkey informed officials of her temperature and was then taken back to the screening unit.
She continued: ‘I told everyone when I returned to the unit that I’d taken paracetamol, which is why I was stunned to find later I was accused of trying to conceal the fact. I was also aware there were attempts to reach infectious diseases specialists but it turns out the staff had the wrong number.’
The nurse was eventually told that she could leave and boarded her flight to Scotland.
She said: ‘I should have been sent to the infectious diseases unit from Heathrow. I feel very bitter that this has been turned around on me and I’m the one they’ve tried to make a scapegoat for their failings.’
Professor Paul Cosford, director of health protection and medical director at PHE, said: ‘There is an agreed version of facts between the NMC and Pauline Cafferkey and her representatives and this description goes beyond these.
‘PHE screened thousands of returners from countries most at risk of ebola and did so with efficiency and courtesy throughout. We have nothing further to add.’