A FORMER Basildon Hospital paediatric nurse who allegedly accessed Facebook when she should have been dealing with a critically ill child could be struck off.

Titilola Orefuwa, a former head nurse in the hospital’s children’s unit, is accused of a string of professional failings over a four-year period by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Orefuwa, who could be removed from the nursing register if found guilty, is accused of accessing Facebook in January 2010 while there was a child of “high dependency” on the ward.

She is also accused of leaving an operating theatre while a sensitive operation on the spine was carried out and failing to catch the resulting drip specimen in May 2007.

In the same year, she is accused of leaving a sedated child without medical supervision as he was transferred for an MRI scan, in breach of medical guidance.

It is also alleged, in June 2008, Orefuwa refused the request of senior nursing staff to transfer to another ward, swearing at them in the process.

A hospital spokeswoman said: “It would be inappropriate for us to comment ahead of the hearing, although we can confirm this individual no longer works at Basildon Hospital.”

The seven-day fitness to practice hearing, which begins on Monday, in London, will hear other allegations against her, including giving medication to a patient which had not been prescribed and telling the child’s parents to give them insulin through a syringe, when they were not trained to do so.

The hearing will also hear claims that while suspended from giving out medication, she gave intravenous medication to one child and insulin to another and then recorded details incorrectly.

Other allegations include:

* Recording the wrong penicillin dosage frequencies for a patient

* Failing to set up feeding tubes properly and respond to an alarm during a child’s care, or give adequate details of care to colleagues.

* Failing to give medication to a patient, adequately check their temperature, keep adequate records and put the patient on restricted fluids after being instructed by a doctor.