A chiropodist has been permanently removed from the professional register after performing an unauthorised toe removal procedure on a vulnerable prisoner at HMP Forest Bank in Salford, Greater Manchester. The Health and Care Professionals Tribunal Service (HCPTS) confirmed the striking-off order, which will take effect from 14 February 2026, following a disciplinary hearing that uncovered severe breaches of medical protocol and ethics.
Serious Failings in Patient Care and Consent
The tribunal found that Lady Deborah Knight Griffiths, a qualified chiropodist since 2008, carried out the invasive procedure on 13 November 2020 without obtaining proper consent from the patient. The prisoner in question was described as acutely vulnerable, suffering from diabetes and in poor health, with a history of previous toe amputations. This context heightened the risk and required stringent safeguards, which were utterly disregarded.
Multiple Pre-Operative Checks Omitted
Investigations revealed that Knight Griffiths failed to conduct eleven essential pre-operative checks. These omissions included not taking a blood pressure reading, neglecting to perform an X-ray, and crucially, failing to secure written or informed consent from the patient. Such oversights represent a fundamental departure from standard medical practice and directly endangered the individual's wellbeing.
Inadequate Record-Keeping and Procedural Errors
Further failings were identified in the chiropodist's documentation and surgical technique. Knight Griffiths kept no written records of the diabetic inmate's treatment, provided no reference to the dosage of local anaesthetic used, and did not obtain a tissue sample or wound swab prior to the procedure. Additionally, she inappropriately stitched the patient's wound with a suture, compounding the procedural malpractice.
Employment and Reporting Context
Knight Griffiths was employed by First Steps Podiatry Ltd and assigned to provide foot care services at HMP Forest Bank, which is privately operated by Sodexo. The incident was reported to the Health Care Professionals Council by Sodexo a month after the procedure, triggering the disciplinary process. The tribunal emphasised that the operation should have been conducted in a hospital setting or as part of a hospital's diabetes multidisciplinary team, not in a prison environment by a practitioner acting beyond her scope.
Tribunal's Firm Stance on Fitness to Practise
The panel concluded that Knight Griffiths' fitness to practise was impaired, with concerns deemed too serious to warrant no further action. They rejected her attempt to be voluntarily removed from the practitioners register, as she did not accept the allegations against her. The tribunal stated that she had worked beyond her scope of practice, placing the patient at real risk of harm and failing to maintain or develop the necessary skills for such procedures.
Background and Previous Suspension
Knight Griffiths, who claimed on LinkedIn to have qualified in 2008 and begun working at Forest Bank in 2016, was initially suspended in 2021 after a prior tribunal found her fitness to practise impaired. The latest hearing consolidates her removal from the profession, underscoring the severe consequences of medical misconduct in custodial settings where patients are particularly vulnerable.
