A nurse who made no attempt to save a dying patient has been suspended for 12 months after being found guilty of misconduct.

University College Hospital nurse Beatrice Adebowale did not press the emergency alarm or contact the crash team, which responds to cardiac arrests and life-threatening emergencies, when a patient was found unresponsive in August 2010.

The patient had been due to be discharged from the gastrointestinal ward in the near future, but she died unexpectedly.

Ms Adebowale was suspended for 12 months by a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) disciplinary panel on Monday, at a resumed hearing.

The NMC panel ruled in April that her fitness to practice was impaired by reason of misconduct, before the hearing was adjourned.

In a document outlining its decision, the panel called her actions “a grave error of judgement” and said her misconduct “brought the profession into disrepute”.

But it added: “The panel considers that you may be able to remedy your clinical failings, given an opportunity to do so, over a period of time, whilst suspended.”

In April, Ms Adebowale told the hearing that she “froze up” because the woman reminded her of her mother who had died four days earlier. It was her first shift back at work since the death.

Ms Adebowale also left the hospital, in Euston Road, Euston, after her shift ended without informing the ward sister of the death.