A PETITION has been launched in support of a Liverpool nurse who was struck off for exposing “appalling” standards at a hospital in an undercover TV documentary.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is gathering signatures for member Margaret Haywood, of Everton, after she secretly recorded the poor conditions at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton, for the BBC’s Panorama programme.

The 58-year-old burst into tears after being banned from nursing for life by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) last week.

The NMC rejected arguments that Mrs Haywood’s actions had been in the public interest. Chairman Linda Read said she breached the code of conduct and did not obtain consent to film “elderly patients in the last stages of their lives”.

Mrs Haywood’s solicitor, Dr Karen Johnson, said her client was “devastated” and too distraught to comment after the ruling.

Mrs Haywood worked with a camera concealed in her uniform for the exposé.

The programme highlighted patients in pain from terminal cancer because drugs were not being administered properly. Nurses were also seen eating in the kitchen while patients went hungry and failing to respond to patients desperate to use the toilet.