A chiropodist who amputated part of a prisoner’s toe without their consent has been struck off.
Lady Deborah Knight Griffiths carried out the procedure at HMP Forest Bank in Salford, Greater Manchester, on 13 November 2020.
A disciplinary hearing found she had “performed an invasive procedure outside the scope of her practice upon an individual who was acutely vulnerable”.
She had been suspended since 2021 after a tribunal found her fitness to practice was impaired and a hearing last week confirmed she will be struck off, taking effect from 14 February.
The Health and Care Professionals Tribunal Service (HCPTS) hearing found she omitted 11 basic key checks before the procedure, which in any case should have taken place in a hospital.
The original hearing was told Knight Griffiths’ company First Steps Podiatry Ltd had been employed to provide foot care by Sodexo, the private operators of the prison.
Sodexo reported the incident to the Health Care Professionals Council a month later.
The tribunal was told Knight Griffiths failed to carry out pre-operation assessments including taking a blood pressure reading, performing an X-ray on the patient’s right foot and obtaining “informed and/or written consent”.
It found she kept no written records of the diabetic inmate’s treatment, including any reference to the dose of the local anaesthetic that was administered.
The panel heard she stitched his wound with a suture “when it was not appropriate to do so”.
It also took place in a procedure which should have been undertaken in a hospital setting “and/or as part of a hospital’s diabetes multidisciplinary team”.
“In respect of particulars, you have worked beyond your scope of practice,” the panel told her.
The tribunal made its ruling on Friday following discussions with her representative, who said she was now too infirm to practice.
It ruled against an attempt from her to be voluntarily removal from the practitioners register, as she did not accept the allegations made against her.
The concerns about her fitness to practice were “too serious”, it said.
Knight Griffiths’ entry on the networking website Linkedin said she qualified in 2008 and began working at Forest Bank in 2016.
