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NHS nurses have been jailed after admitting they would drug patients for an “easier life”.

Catherine Hudson, 54, was working at the stroke unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital between 2017 and 2018, and was egged on by 48-year-old Charlotte Wilmot. The latter encouraged Hudson to carry out the dangerous behaviour in vile text messages, with one stating: "Pmsl well tonight sedate him to high heaven lol."

And in another, Hudson wrote: "I'm going to kill bed 5."

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Hudson was jailed for seven years and two months while Wilmot was caged for three years. The pair were busted after Hudson told a student nurse to give a non-prescribed sleeping pill called Zopiclone to a patient who had a Do Not Attempt Resuscitation order on them, to which Hudson meant that they “wouldn’t be opened up if she died or like if it came to any harm”. The student nurse became a whistleblower, which saw the launch of an international investigation into the pair.

Marek Grabienowski, a band 7 nurse who at one stage ran the hospital's A&E department, was also found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to steal drugs from his employer, and perverting the course of justice. He was jailed for 14 months.

Hudson was found guilty of three counts of ill-treatment and one count of conspiracy to ill-treat, while Wilmot was found guilty of conspiracy to ill-treat and encouraging Hudson to sedate a patient.

In October, a court heard how restrictions on drugs were so lax in the stroke unit that staff would self-medicate or steal drugs to supply to others. A number of staff members were arrested during the investigation, and prosecutors said a "culture of abuse" was revealed on the unit when police examined WhatsApp phone messages between the co-defendants and other members of staff.

Hudson wrote about one of her victims: "I sedated one of them to within an inch of her life lol. Bet she’s flat for a week haha xxx." Experts told the court how non-prescribed sedatives could be life-threatening, particularly to elderly patients.

Giving evidence, the defendants claimed the private messages were "banter" and not supposed to be taken seriously. They said the "gallows humour" was the venting of their frustrations at working in a chronically understaffed unit.

At an earlier hearing, Hudson pleaded guilty to conspiring with other colleagues to steal drugs and also a further offence of perverting the course of justice. Wilmot also pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal medication. The daughter of one of the victims, called Janet, called the nurses “cold” and “callous”.

Susan Cheatham said during the sentencing: "It is shocking to think anyone in the nursing professional could commit such a cold callous act against vulnerable and medically vulnerable patients. The convictions close a chapter that has been open and very much in our lives for six years. In one sense we feel justice has been done but on the other hand we feel the motivation would not have been present had mum's mental health not declined the way it is.”

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