Margaret Haywood was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council last week. She had secretly filmed patients in the hospital where she worked to document the conditions, which she claimed to have previously reported. These images were subsequently broadcast on the BBC programme Panorama. There has been an outcry from nurses, as well as from some families of patients on the ward, objecting to the penalty. One has described the conditions there as appalling.

Was this fair? Yes. Patient confidentiality is sacrosanct. If you have to break it – and there are few reasons for doing so – it has to be after other avenues have been exhausted.