A MALE nurse who slept while on duty at a nursing home made up a false chart to show he had looked after an elderly patient, a disciplinary committee heard yesterday.

He also left care assistants to administer medicine to residents and put the medication into pots; without showing who they were for, the UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting's professional conduct committee heard.

Gordon Elliott, 31, was working as a staff nurse at Ascot House Nursing Home, Newcastle, at the time of the incidents.

Elliott, who did not attend the London hearing, denied that between December 1994 and June 1999 he slept while on duty, and on one night failed to give adequate care to a resident.

He also denied measuring out doses of medicine for four patients without identifying who they were for, and failing to supervise care assistants who administered the medication.

The committee found that Elliott, 59, who qualified in 1969, was guilty of misconduct.

Committee chairman Elizabeth Rush ordered Elliott's name to be removed from the register "with immediate effect".

David Glendinning, for the UK Central Council, said witnesses said the registered mental nurse slept under blankets on two chairs pushed together and subsequently on duvets and pillows at the home.

The committee was told by Angela Forster, matron at the home, in Wingrove Road, Fenham, that Elliott was suspended from his job.

After an internal investigation he was dismissed