Police raid on nurse’s home finds drug boxes ordered for aged care residents
A DRUG peddling nurse has been caught trafficking deadly painkillers that she deceitfully ordered in the names of aged care residents.
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A DRUG-dealing nurse faces losing her registration for trafficking deadly painkillers that she ordered in the names of aged-care residents.
Working at an aged-care facility in Lysterfield as a nurse, Aneta Kramarz was responsible for ordering boxes of powerful oxycodone painkillers for patients.
A police raid on Ms Kramarz’s home found many empty boxes of medication she had ordered from a local pharmacy in the name of residents at the facility.
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Police were called when it was noticed Ms Kramarz, in breach of the facility’s policy for the collection of medications, often went to collect the painkillers from the pharmacy.
In all, police said Ms Kramarz obtained 50 boxes of Endone 5mg tablets consisting of 1000 pills and 15 boxes of Oxynorm consisting of 300 pills.
In a criminal proceeding last year, Ms Kramarz pleaded guilty to trafficking a drug of dependence and obtaining the oxycodone pills by deception. She was placed on a Community Corrections Order without conviction.
The matter was referred to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal by the Nursing and Midwifery Board to assess the seriousness of her conduct.
VCAT last week found Ms Kramarz had engaged in professional misconduct and that her conduct meant she was not a fit and proper person to hold a registration as a nurse.
Although Ms Kramarz chose not attend the hearing, VCAT member Gerard Butcher said she had admitted to drug dealing and deception and that she had repeatedly misused her position as a nurse to do so.
Mr Butcher decided that as “a matter of procedural fairness” the matter would be adjourned to a yet-to-be-fixed date to allow submissions concerning a final ruling.
Oxycodone is an opioid-based medication that can be highly addictive and poses a high risk of unintentional overdose when used without medical supervision.
Painkillers are the leading cause of accidental overdose deaths, almost doubling from 799 in the five years to 2005 to 1556 in the five years to 2015. Most of the victims are middle-aged and older Australians.
And Australians are far more likely to overdose on opioids, including oxycodone, than by sleeping tablets such as valium (benzodiazepines) or alcohol.