Nurse had sex with heart transplant patient

A nurse had a passionate affair with a seriously ill married patient as he awaited heart and lung transplants at a Midland hospital.

Express & Star

Rebecca Bayliss, aged 29, of Walsall, was found guilty yesterday of having a sexual relationship with the man by the Nursing and Midwifery Council and could now be struck off.

She joked to a colleague that she could have sex with him by turning up his oxygen and giving him nebulisers.

The nurse began a relationship with the patient at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital.

The affair was discovered after the man, referred to only as Patient A and sufferring from cystic fibrosis, told a clinical psychologist.

Bayliss was called to a meeting by management in May 2008 and banned from seeing the patient, but she contacted him again.

Patient A later told investigators that he “could have done without the stress” and that the affair “certainly didn’t help my recovery”.

Mr Salim Hefejee, for the NMC, told the hearing that Bayliss, who did not attend, engaged in a “wholly unprofessional and unacceptable relationship”.

He said: “Patient A was vulnerable, suffering from a significant illness. The turmoil of the relationship had an adverse affect on him, causing stress and upset.”

Fellow nurse Laura Grant told the hearing that Bayliss had written on Facebook that she was excited, and told Mrs Grant that she was seeing someone other than her partner.

She told her a week later that the man was Patient A. Mrs Grant said: “We talked about how inappropriate it was, and I advised her to tell the management what was going on.”

Another co-worker, Laura Barlow, said of Bayliss: “She said that she had fallen in love. I was totally shocked.

Bayliss, who had worked for the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust since 2006, was found guilty of entering into a sexual relationship with a patient between February 2008 and May 2008.

An allegation of failing to inform her manager of the relationship and failing to maintain professional boundaries with the patient was also proved.

The panel will now decide whether Bayliss’s fitness to practice has been impaired. If they decide it has, she could be struck off from the profession.

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