Nurse admits stealing powerful drugs

A 40-year-old nurse from Mount Maunganui has admitted stealing restricted drugs from Tauranga hospital.

Dan Hansson admitted stealing 120 vials of Fentanyl from a locked hospital safe between March and October this year.

Fentanyl is used to give pain relief, often to treat "breakthrough" pain for cancer patients. It has similar biological effects to heroin but can be many times more potent and US authorities have classified it as a narcotic.

Hansson obtained the drugs after entering false names, names of deceased patients, and discharged patients into the drugs register.

Staff monitoring the register detected irregularities in the entries and alerted police.

Through his lawyer, Hansson said the drugs were stolen to support his drug habit. He will be sentenced on December 8.

Staff who monitored the drugs register discovered irregularities in the entries and alerted the police. Bay of Plenty District Health Board said it would be reviewing its security systems in light of the theft, but said it was due to their security safeguards Hansson was caught when he was.

Chief operating officer Graham Dyer said an internal investigation into security processes was still continuing, and it was expected that recommendations to enhance monitoring would be implemented when the investigation was completed.

"However, it was the health board's robust monitoring system that eventually led to the arrest of the staff member accused of stealing drugs, so we are not anticipating significant changes to monitoring procedures as a result of the investigation," Mr Dyer said.

- NEWSTALK ZB, NZPA