A 57 year old registered nurse from Romney Marsh has been struck off the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register for inappropriate behaviour towards a patient.

Jeremy Peters was employed at Hillside Hospital, a rehabilitation unit for people with mental health problems in Hastings, Sussex in 2006.

He was charged with giving a patient his mobile phone number, sending her three inappropriate and unprofessional text messages, hugging and kissing the patient on numerous occasions, and driving the patient to a pub for lunch.

The independent panel of the Conduct and Competence Committee heard that in one of the text messages Peters wrote 'If needed you will be able to roll over and hold me as we did earlier…'.

While Peters denied hugging and kissing the patient and taking her to a pub, the panel accepted the patient's detailed recollection of these events, which is outside any care plan set for the patient. The panel noted that Peters' charges were of a sexual nature and were liable to cause the vulnerable patient serious harm.

Commenting on the panel's decision to strike Peters off the register, NMC spokesperson Kristy Hempel said: "Peters' actions were proved to be a fundamental and serious breach of the NMC's Code of professional conduct.

"He crossed proper professional boundaries and failed to protect and support the health of the patient, who he knew to be particularly vulnerable. Peters showed no insight into the gravity of his behaviour and the panel deemed him a potential risk to patients and unfit to practise as a registered nurse, issuing a striking off order to maintain public confidence in the NMC."