Crosshouse Hospital: Ayrshire nurse suspended for Covid conspiracies

Tracey McCallum, who worked at Crosshouse Hospital, gave radio and TV interviews and made online posts branding the national emergency a "scamdemic". That led to her sacking by NHS24.

Now she has been suspended from the profession by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for a period a year, with an interim suspension order in place for 18 months. A review of the order will take place after 12 months.

Her conspiracy theory posts online included: "I for one, am sick of hearing about tests and vaccines. They won't help any of us if we get seriously unwell and it won't help my 82-year-old dad.”

She also wrote: “Vaccines are rushed through. And from the amount of folk that have already died from them, yes folk have died but that’s not on the BBC”, as well as "They are treating us like gullible idiots".

She also endorsed a post by Dr Vernon Coleman, who suggested masks were dangerous and referenced another post which stated: “Doctors and nurses giving the Covid-19 vaccine will be tried as war criminals.”

At the height of the pandemic in November 2020, Miss McCallum appeared on ‘The Richie Allen Show’ and the ‘Shelley Tasker Podcast Show’ hosted by Cornwall Revolution Radio, in which she allegedly repeated anti-government, anti-mask and anti-vaccine views.

McCallum worked for NHS 24 based at Crosshouse (Image: Newsquest)

On the Shelley Tasker Cornwall Revolution Show, she confirmed that she had posted ‘giving the vaccine without proper testing is as good as genocide, like the holocaust, and that is what they had nurses doing in the holocaust’, or words to that effect.

She also used a ‘first name’ in referring to a patient in one of her posts and was adjudged to have committed a “breach of confidentiality” in that respect and in respect of a work colleague.

McCallum, who had been registered as a nurse for more than 20 years, was employed by NHS24 as a band six nurse from 2009 to an unknown date in 2021.

The NMC report into her ran for 46 pages.

It said the charges found proved ‘did not relate’ to McCallum’s clinical practice and they had “no evidence” that any patients were caused ‘actual harm’ as a direct result.

But they added: “We consider the misconduct serious because over a significant period Miss McCallum used her status as a registered nurse to widely promote health advice which was contrary to recommended practice and official health advice.

"Miss McCallum also encouraged members of the public to distrust or disregard official health advice.

"She promoted conspiracy theories unsupported by evidence and propagated the view that there was not a global Covid-19 pandemic, and that members of the nursing profession, other healthcare professionals, the Government, and the WHO (World Heath Organisation) were complicit in genocide.

“Her conduct took place in the context of a global pandemic, both during and in the immediate aftermath. The near consensus view of the scientific and medical community is that by advising contrary to official health and medical advice, this will place members of the public and others they encounter at risk of contracting Covid-19 and therefore at risk of serious harm.

"Her actions fall far short of the standards expected of a registered nurse.”

They said the case would be reviewed in a year and added: "Another panel may well consider a striking-off order at that point."