A chiropodist has been removed from the medical register after she amputated part of a prisoner’s toe without their consent. Lady Deborah Knight Griffiths carried out the procedure at HMP Forest Bank in Salford, Greater Manchester, on 13 November 2020.
A disciplinary hearing found that Griffiths had “performed an invasive procedure outside the scope of her practice upon an individual who was acutely vulnerable.” The Health and Care Professionals Tribunal Service (HCPTS) hearing determined that Griffiths had omitted 11 basic key checks before the procedure, which should have taken place in a hospital setting.
Griffiths’ company, First Steps Podiatry Ltd, had been employed by the private prison operator Sodexo to provide foot care for inmates. The incident was reported to the Health Care Professionals Council a month later by Sodexo.
The tribunal heard that Griffiths failed to carry out pre-operation assessments, including taking the patient’s blood pressure, performing an X-ray on their right foot, and obtaining informed and/or written consent. She also kept no written records of the diabetic inmate’s treatment, including the dosage of the local anaesthetic administered.
Furthermore, the panel found that Griffiths had stitched the wound with a suture “when it was not appropriate to do so,” and the procedure should have been undertaken in a hospital setting “and/or as part of a hospital’s diabetes multidisciplinary team.”
The HCPTS ruled that Griffiths’ “fitness to practice was impaired,” and she will be struck off the register, effective from 14 February. The tribunal rejected her attempt to be voluntarily removed from the register, as she did not accept the allegations made against her, and the concerns about her fitness to practice were “too serious.”
Griffiths’ entry on the networking website LinkedIn stated that she qualified in 2008 and began working at Forest Bank in 2016.
