A MENTAL health nurse has been given a three and a half year caution order after she struck up a personal and sexual relationship with a patient.

Amanda Plater was working for the North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, which has responsibility for mental health in north Essex and in Suffolk, when she began the relationship in December 2011.

It continued for some of the period until July 2014.

Mrs Plater admitted to a Nursing and Midwifery Council panel her fitness to practice had been impaired.

Her clinical skills were never questioned.

After a two-day hearing, the panel found: “Although a caution order will not restrict Mrs Plater’s ability to work, it sends a clear and strong message to her, the profession, potential employers and the public that what she did was unacceptable, must not be repeated and that Mrs Plater must, in future, always adhere to the standards of the profession’s code of conduct, performance and ethics.”

The patient was registered in Suffolk when their relationship began.