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Guest Character Profiles > Carol Crane Sally Bourne

Carol Crane 2013, 2015
Occupation: Nursing Unit Manager at Erinsborough Hospital

Following the breakdown of a seven-year relationship with her boyfriend, nurse Georgia Brooks found herself increasingly distracted at work and after making a couple of mistakes, was told by her nursing manager Carol to take a few days off. It wasn't long after Georgia returned to work that she found herself in more trouble - after bumping into Pete Clark, a guy she'd been on a date with, who'd tried to give her drugs, Georgia had fled, accidentally leaving behind the keys to the drugs cupboard. When she returned, she realised her mistake, and found that some of the medication had been taken. Georgia once again had to report to Carol, who accepted her story - though Georgia left out the part about Pete being in the room when she fled. Things got worse, however, when Georgia insisted that Carol search her bag, only for her to find a couple of different types of sleeping tablets. Georgia insisted that these had been prescribed to her following her recent problems, but Carol wasn't impressed. Later, Georgia returned with her cousin, lawyer Toadie, and gave the full story, including the parts about Pete being there, him offering her drugs the week before, and him being sacked from his job at the local bar for dealing. Though Carol was happy to have everything out in the open, she explained that this only made things worse for Georgia, as the hospital couldn't be sure that she hadn't been working with Pete to get the drugs. She was forced to suspend Georgia pending a full investigation.

The next day, Carol bumped into Karl Kennedy, one of the doctors who'd been working closely with Georgia, and the one who'd raised concerns about her working too hard and making mistakes a few weeks earlier. Carol wanted Karl's advice on the situation with Georgia, and he made it clear that, although she'd had her problems recently, Georgia was a good nurse and he didn't believe for a second that she'd stolen the drugs or arranged for anyone else to take them. Carol and Karl chatted about it on the way back to the hospital, and Karl later visited Georgia and told her that, although he believed she was innocent, there were a lot of things counting against her and that, if she wanted to keep her career, she really needed to find out who had really taken the drugs, and clear her name. Soon after, Georgia learnt that she'd been sacked, but her boyfriend Kyle was determined to prove her innocence. After learning that a kid named Lachie had been known to sell prescription medications from his school locker, Kyle set him up. This backfired when Lachie told the police that Kyle had assaulted him, but at the police station, Georgia recognised Lachie's mum as her old nursing colleague Tina, and suddenly realised what had been going on. Tina had been taking the drugs, to deal with a chronic back problem that she'd often complained about, and Lachie had been stealing them from her to sell.

With Tina being dealt with, Carol met up with Georgia to apologise for everything she'd been through recently. She told Georgia that she'd be reinstated and the incident wouldn't be mentioned on her record, and she also spoke to Georgia about an overseas emergency training course that Georgia had previously shown an interest in, offering to give her a good reference if she still wanted to apply.

A couple of years later, Georgia put in a complaint about the practices of one of the doctors, Nick Petrides, and Carol arranged a mediation meeting with the two of them. Georgia explained that Nick had been going against hospital protocol, booking out rooms without listing a patient, unaware that Nick was actually treating mayor Paul Robinson with chemotherapy sessions, having lied to him that he had leukaemia, in the hope that it might persuade Paul to help him to open a cancer research centre in Erinsborough. Without giving too much away, Nick explained that he had a private patient, but also aware that Georgia was getting dangerously close to the truth, he then plotted against her. After hacking into Georgia's social media, he made a post about how excited she was to be treating mining magnate Janine Morgan, a post which then went viral and had an effect on share prices. A furious Janine put in a complaint against Georgia, who denied everything, but the evidence on her phone showed that she had made the post, and she was subsequently suspended from work, with Nick barely able to hide his glee.