A former dietician has been banned from practicing after it emerged that he was putting vulnerable patients at “risk of harm” through his poor record keeping.

David Brown, who was employed by East Suffolk and North East Essex Foundation Trust, was suspended from practising for 12 months on Friday.

Mr Brown formerly worked with diabetes and motor neurone disease patients at Ipswich Hospital within the oncology dietetic team after a short spell as a locum with the community team.

The hospital worker had previously denied that he acted dishonestly, but admitted that his record keeping fell short of the expected standard.

These included not recording full clinical information from appointments with patients and not providing full clinical documentation in relation to interventions.

Examples of this were discussed before a hearing led by the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service.

It was heard that, around February 21, 2020, he recorded seeing a patient on December 10 the previous year – when in fact, she had died a month earlier.

On another occasion, Mr Brown conducted a home visit for a patient in June 2019, but did not complete records for this visit until the following November, five months later.

The panel made the decision to suspend Mr Brown from practising, citing the “lengthy period” during which the misconduct took place.

The panel said: “[Mr Brown’s] behaviour had affected a large number of service users. There had been an ever-present risk of harm as a result of his behaviour.”

It added that all service users affected were “vulnerable and frail”.

It continued: “[Mr Brown] has not expressed any regret or remorse, nor has he provided any apology for his behaviour.” It said there was also “no evidence that he has fully reflected upon his previous failings”.

Mr Brown was not present at the hearing. It was heard that he has since left the NHS, having joined the army in June 2020, but accepted that he would require additional training should he ever return to his former profession.