A NURSING sister accused of murdering three patients was unlikely to have deliberately set out to harm them, according to an NHS inquiry report.

The panel said Anne Grigg-Booth, of Nelson, was ‘not a Beverley Allitt’, the Lincolnshire nurse serving 13 life sentences for killing four children and maiming nine others by using lethal injections.

Grigg-Booth, 52, was charged by police in 2004 with murdering three patients, Annie Midgeley, 96, Eva Blackburn, 75 and Jane Driver, 67, by using high dosage injections of morphine-based drugs. She died before the case came to trial.

Detectives had previously told of their fears that Grigg-Booth may have been responsible for many more deaths during her career at the hospital near Keighley.

But the panel suggested it was more likely Grigg-Booth, although acting unlawfully by prescribing the opiates without reference to a doctor, had not mean to harm the patients.

The report said Grigg-Booth was ‘utterly convinced of her own clinical prowess’ and was ‘effectively in charge of the hospital’ during the night in her role as a night nurse practitioner.

And while she might have been a ‘bully’ and intimidated colleagues at Airedale Hospital, she was a ‘hard working, experienced and caring nurse’, the panel said.

The report instead singled out a ‘systemic failure in management’ to understand what was happening on the wards during the night shift.

Grigg-Booth believed she was permitted to prescribe the drugs and her ‘actions were entirely open’ in that she recorded the details in clinical records, the panel said.

Airedale Hospital bosses were criticised by public inquiry head Eddie Kinsella for allowing Grigg-Booth and her colleagues to administer the medicines from 2000 to 2002.

Mr Kinsella said he was confident the failures had now been addressed by the NHS.

Bridget Fletcher, nursing director at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: “As outlined in the report, the trust has made significant improvements, particularly since 2005, thanks to the enormous efforts by the trust board and staff at every level and we would like to reassure both patients and the local community that patient safety is, and always will be, our highest priority.”

Grigg-Booth was found dead at her home in Henry Street, Nelson, in August 2005, before she could stand trial over the alleged killings. An inquest heard she had taken an accidental overdose of anti-depressants after suffering from problems with alcohol.

As well as three counts of murder, she also faced an attempted murder charge, relating to 42-year-old patient Michael Parker, and 13 offences of unlawfully administering noxious substances to 12 other patients.

Police said she never gave them any clue about what her motivation was and always denied the charges.

Because of her seniority and attitude – she was known to be forthright with colleagues and bosses – this may have led Grigg-Booth to believe she was ‘above the rules’, the panel said.

The report stated: “The trust board’s approach was that here was a rogue nurse, and that all else was well. This was untrue and should have been known at board level long before December 2002, and at every stage thereafter.”

Following Grigg-Booth’s arrest and death, her divisional manager at Airedale eventually resigned, two fellow night nurses were demoted and a third retired early. The hospital trust which governs Airedale now no longer relies on the night nurse system.

Bridget Fletcher said: “There were clearly problems with the way the hospital was managed.

"The system in place was to allow night nurse practitioners to have responsiblity without the checks and balances we have now.”

Speaking after Anne’s death, her husband Paul Grigg-Booth, a former nurse and teacher from Colne, said she was a ‘broken woman’ after losing her hospital job and she developed an alcohol problem.

Victims’ families had campaigned for a public inquiry.

Timeline

1988: Grigg-Booth becomes night sister at Airedale.

July 2001: First patient death.

November 2001: Death of second Airedale victim recorded.

June 2002: Third death, of patient Michael Walker, is reported. Grigg-Booth would later face an attempted murder charge.

July 2002: Fourth death recorded. Grigg-Booth goes off sick.

December 2002: First concerns raised about Grigg-Booth administering opiates to patients intravenously.

January 2003: Hospital bosses suspend Grigg-Booth over opiate offences. Police investigation begins.

September 2004: Grigg-Booth charged by police with murder and attempted murder. She is sacked by the hospital for gross misconduct.

August 29, 2005: Grigg-Booth found dead at her Nelson home of suspected overdose.

October 2008: Independent inquiry announced by NHS Yorkshire and Humber.

June 2010: Findings of public inquiry released.