A senior nurse must be supervised after a misconduct hearing found she had made a series of errors while working at Medway Maritime Hospital.

Lilly Pulikoden was employed on the pre-assessment unit at the Gillingham hospital between 2010 and last year, carrying out patients’ checks before surgery.

However, she went before the Nursing and Midwifery Council for failing to assess patients properly and giving them the wrong information before their operations.

Ms Pulikoden was accused of 31 separate charges of incompetence and misconduct, relating to 10 different patients.

Eighteen were proved at a hearing in London.

Despite 13 of the charges not being proved, the panel ruled that overall the nurse had failed to demonstrate the standards, knowled­ge, skills and judgement re­quir­ed to practise as a band six clinical sister and ruled her fitness to practise was impaired.

Ms Pulikoden was found guilty of incompetence and the panel said her failings covered “wide-ranging areas of basic nursing practice”.

They included recording the wrong information in a patient’s notes, giving a patient incorrect post-op advice, using old lab results and prescribing the wrong medication to one patient – a drug that can cause a serious blood clot on the spine if used incorrectly.

Ms Pulikoden was found guilty of misconduct for trying to cover up the drug error when it was pointed out by another member of staff – she hid a prescription receipt in her pocket.

Ms Pulikoden has been given a six-month condition of practice order.

It means she cannot be the nurse in charge and must not be responsible for, nor carry out, pre-operative assessments unless under the direct supervision of a band six nurse.

She was told at the end of the hearing: “The panel could not safely conclude that you would not repeat similar failures in the future, particularly if you were to find yourself working alone and/or in an unfamiliar environment.

“In these circumstances, the panel could not exclude the risk of repetition and harm to patients.”

A spokesman for Medway NHS Foundation Trust confirmed in March this year that Ms Pulikoden was no longer one of its employees.