A ROW over form-filling led to a brawl between two female nurses in front of a patient just out of surgery, a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing has heard.

The altercation, which involved hair-pulling and slapping, broke out between a staff nurse and a colleague in the recovery room for the Ear, Nose and Throat Theatres at Bradford Royal Infirmary on November 20, 2012.

The NMC hearing, held over three days, has now heard from the patient how he had to call out two or three times for pain relief before getting off his trolley to pull the pair apart - by which time they were on the floor.

The staff nurse, named by the NMC as Elaine Cornforth, who had been accused of starting the fight, was dismissed by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 2013 and lost an appeal to get her job back.

But the NMC panel has concluded there was no case for her to answer, after finding evidence from the patient and the complainant was "inconsistent and unreliable".

She had been accused of physically assaulting her colleague on duty and that because of that, her fitness to practise was impaired by her misconduct.

Both nurses had admitted being involved in the physical altercation which started when the nurse, who is only referred to as M1 in the report of the hearing, claimed she had been assaulted having told the staff nurse she could not fill in a drugs form because she had never done it before.

She had claimed Miss Cornforth became angry and had pulled the collar of her top from behind as she walked away.

She said she had not noticed her face was close to her back, so when she put her hand behind to pull her hand off her collar, she accidentally caught her on the cheek.

She then claimed the staff nurse had pulled her hair from behind, resulting in her head jerking back. She said she had then twisted to face her but Miss Cornforth was pushing her head downwards and she thought she wanted to hit her with her knee.

It was at that point she raised her head to see the patient trying to pull her hands off her.

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Miss Cornforth told the hearing she had acted in self-defence.

The panel's report of the hearing states: "The panel considered the admitted behaviour of both nurses being involved in a physical altercation to be reprehensible and that this behaviour has brought the profession into disrepute. The procedural failings at all stages that have occurred, by the Trust and by the NMC are regrettable."

Yesterday, a spokesman for Bradford Hospitals said: “Miss Cornforth was dismissed in 2013. We carried out a thorough investigation into her conduct at the time of the allegations and took appropriate action against her.

"Inappropriate behaviour by staff will not be tolerated.”