An intensive care nurse at Mayo General Hospital who forged her own prescriptions when she became addicted to painkillers has been given a suspended sentence at Castlebar Circuit Court.
Sinéad Donohoe (42) of Scrigg, Ballyhaunis, stole three prescription pads from the hospital to obtain Solpadol from pharmacies in seven towns across Mayo and Roscommon, the court heard.
She pleaded guilty to two sample counts of theft and four of forgery representing a total of 112 charges, of which 109 were for forgery.
Donohoe made up all of the doctors’ names and registration numbers on the fake prescriptions used in the offences, carried out between September 1, 2019 and February 19, 2021.
The court heard that Donohoe was suffering pain from endometriosis and experiencing a high level of workplace stress when she became addicted to Solpadol, which contains codeine.
Judge Eoin Garavan set a headline sentence of two years but reduced this to 16 months fully suspended because of mitigating factors including Donohoe’s low risk of reconviction and good employment and education history.
Judge Garavan described Donohoe as a ‘smart insightful lady dealing with her addictions’ who had made a serious error and was an ‘indirect victim of Covid’.
‘She was working in intensive care in Castlebar hospital during Covid. We were all at home banging our pots and pans thinking how great they were but we didn’t see the appalling conditions in which they had to work,’ the judge said.
‘She was at the frontline trying to cope. We didn’t quite realise what the doctors and nurses had to face. They weren’t trained to deal with that. There weren’t enough body bags, they were trying to cope with the fatalities,’ he added, although noting that Donohoe’s first offence pre-dated the Covid pandemic.
Garda Tyrone Tobin told Pat Reynolds BL, prosecuting, that the offence first came to light when a pharmacist in Castlerea was not happy with a prescription handed in by Donohoe as he said it was too high a quantity of Solpadol.
A garda investigation revealed that Donohoe had used the forged prescriptions in several pharmacies in each of the towns of Ballyhaunis, Ballaghdereen, Claremorris, Castlebar, Castlerea, Knock and Kiltimagh.
When a search was carried out at Donohoe’s home in February 2021, she handed over the three stolen prescription pads and made full admissions.
She has no previous or subsequent convictions and is a married mother of two children.
Gda Tobin agreed with Bernard Madden SC, defending, that Donohoe had been fully cooperative throughout her voluntary garda interviews and had never attempted to deny responsibility.
The court heard that Donohoe’s nursing registration has been suspended and she is not working.
Mr Madden said his client was working in an unhealthy and toxic work environment during Covid which had a terrible effect on her, and that she has been struggling to come to terms with this ever since.
A probation report for Donohoe was ‘entirely positive’, the court heard, and she is in recovery and continuing to attend counselling.
Judge Garavan said it was a sad case but that Donohoe had abused her position as a nurse and her access to prescription pads.
‘She has suffered the consequences, her feelings of shame are genuine and she doesn’t forgive herself, even now. The only person she damaged was herself,’ added the judge.