A CORONER expressed concerns about whether English competency tests are carried out by the county’s provider of healthcare services.

An inquest at Herefordshire Coroner’s Court heard how Corina Pirvulescu, a Romanian national, was being investigated by the The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) at the time of her death on May 14.

The 43-year-old of St Clares Court in Lower Bullingham worked at Hereford County Hospital as a nurse.

Lucy Flanagan, director of nursing at Wye Valley NHS Trust, said Ms Pirvulescu was employed by the trust from June 2017. She said the ward sister identified concerns early on in her employment.

Ms Flanagan said: “At that point in time it was felt that whilst Corina had good conversational English there were some concerns around English language in understanding intricacies of clinical terminology.”

Ms Flanagan said Ms Pirvulescu was referred to the NMC and an investigation started.

She said from 2016 any nurse entering the UK who wanted to register with the NMC had to pass an English competency test.

However, if a nurse had been registered before 2016, they would not be tested and Ms Pirvulescu had registered in 2010.

Ms Flanagan said during Ms Pirvulescu’s job interview there were no concerns raised and added: “Our assumption is if they are already on the register we would not be required to test them.”

Coroner Mark Bricknell said: “My worry is we are still going to have a situation where we are going to employ lots of people who aren’t competent in English.”

Ms Flanagan said the trust carried out a review and agreed they needed to ensure the interview process was more robust.

Ms Pirvulescu’s partner Wayne Siggers said the trust had told her she could not work as a nurse with anyone else while the investigation was ongoing. He said: “She just felt she had nowhere to go. She had been a nurse for 20 years.”

A post mortem revealed she died from asphyxia due to hanging. Mr Bricknell recorded a conclusion of suicide.

Mr Bricknell said: “Questions of her competency had arisen which appeared particularly related to her command of medical English. That issue had not been appropriately raised at the time of her employment.

“As a consequence it was felt appropriate that matters were referred to the NMC and that referral and the ongoing procedures led Corina Pirvulescu to feel sufficient concern to give consideration to her ending her life.”