Care home boss who told staff their positive Covid tests were NEGATIVE is cleared to return to nursing after seven residents died during pandemic

Published 15 October 2026, 16:24

• Joanne Burchell's suspension is replaced with 12 months of restrictions, but the panel warns of a 'real risk of repetition'
• Seven residents, aged 70 to 102, died after Covid tore through Holmesley Care Home in Sidford, Devon, in 2021
• Panel found she binned a Public Health England message about extra staff, saying 'we do not need their help'
• Colleague Christos Provistallis alleged

Joanne Burchell, the former manager of a Devon care home where seven elderly residents died of Covid-19, has been cleared to return to nursing, even though a panel found she told staff their positive tests were negative.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has replaced her suspension with a 12-month conditions of practice order, allowing her back into the profession with restrictions, thenewshound.com reported.

Burchell ran Holmesley Care Home in Sidford, Devon, where seven residents died after contracting coronavirus in March or April 2021.

The decision was made by a Fitness to Practise Committee panel, chaired by Oluwasola Falola, at an online review hearing on 2 October 2026.

The conditions take effect when her current suspension ends, at the end of 17 October 2026.

A Fitness to Practise Committee first suspended her for 12 months on 20 March 2025.

On 5 March 2026, a review panel extended that suspension by six months.

At this month's hearing, the panel found that her fitness to practise is still impaired, pointing to the need to protect the public and to the wider public interest.

The panel said "there remains a real risk of repetition and a consequent risk of harm to the public."

"Your insight is still developing, and you have not fully strengthened your nursing practice," the panel told her.

According to the panel, she showed too little understanding of infection control issues "outside of the coronavirus pandemic."

The panel found she did not show she understood how her failures affected residents, the colleagues she worked with at the time and the wider public.

Burchell has completed several training courses on the areas of concern, but she did not explain how she would use what she had learned in her nursing work.

Ben Edwards, who presented the case for the NMC, said the regulator took no position on whether her fitness to practise remained impaired.

Conell Loggenberg, representing Burchell, argued she was no longer impaired.

He pointed to her "extensive reflection, insight, remorse" and to the steps she had taken to improve her practice.

Loggenberg said she now works in a non-clinical healthcare job with patients who have Parkinson's disease and dementia.

When deciding on a sanction, the panel said taking no action or issuing a caution would not adequately protect the public or serve the public interest.

The panel said her misconduct was not "at the lower end of the spectrum."

However, it decided that workable conditions could be set that, "if complied with, may lead to your unrestricted return to nursing practice."

Under the order, Burchell must complete training and pass a skills assessment in infection prevention and control.

She must also write a personal development plan covering infection control and leadership.

She is required to meet a line manager, mentor or supervisor at least every two months.

The misconduct took place while Burchell managed the home between February 2021 and 9 March 2021.

The panel found it proven that she "Informed staff members that their Covid Lateral Flow test results were negative when the results were positive."

She also dismissed positive results as wrong because the tests supposedly came from a bad batch, "when you had no clinical basis for doing so," the charges said.

It was further proven that she "Allowed staff members to work when they had tested positive for Covid."

Witnesses at the inquest into the seven deaths in Exeter alleged Burchell had not sent sick staff home because of shortages and had ignored positive lateral flow test results, itv.com reported.

The NMC panel also found it proven that she "Threw a telephone message from Public Health England asking if more staff were required, in the bin saying 'we do not need their help' or words to that effect."

Another group of charges found that she failed to provide the leadership and supervision needed to set up proper infection control and stop the virus from spreading.

Residents arriving at or returning to the home were not isolated, and residents with symptoms were not kept apart from others.

Staff did not always wear masks, and did not always wear them correctly.

The panel found that her actions "put residents and/or staff at risk of serious harm."

The seven residents were William Wilkinson, 102; Doris Lockett, 92; Roy Gilliam, 96; Jean Hartley, 81; Susan Skinner, 70; Ronald Bampfylde, 92; and Stanislawa Koch, 93, devonlive.com reported.

After the outbreak, police arrested and questioned Burchell and nurse Christos Provistallis.

At the inquest, Det Sgt Tom Hall said the pair had been arrested on suspicion of ill-treatment or wilful neglect, according to bbc.co.uk.

He said the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was no realistic prospect of conviction, so neither was charged.

The inquest also heard allegations that some staff did not wear face masks or PPE, that others kept working after testing positive, and that test results were ignored.

Provistallis allegedly refused to wear a face mask, claiming "Covid was a conspiracy."

The families of the dead condemned the decision not to prosecute anyone.

Wladek Koch, the son of Stanislawa Koch, suggested the authorities lacked the "courage" to bring charges.

"If they had done the honourable thing that would have set a precedent," Koch said.

"As it is now, there is a licence for people to do exactly the same again and get away with it," he said.

He added: "And not even a £100 fine."

Sally Burns, Ronald Bampfylde's daughter, said: "I am absolutely astounded by all of this."

"It is just a litany of processes, investigations and recommendations and this, that and the other, that everyone can ignore, and nothing happens at the end of it except people die," she said.

Alison Shaw, Susan Skinner's sister, also spoke out about the outcome.

"Now knowing what happened and hearing it stated and proven, I am actually also quite shocked that potentially there will be no repercussions on the people who I feel were responsible," Shaw said.

Alison Longhorn, the area coroner for Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, then paused the inquest and said she would deliver her conclusions the following week.