A CARER who was so drunk she couldn't speak and had to grip onto furniture to stay upright has been suspended by nursing watchdogs.

Mirela-Alina Gusa was seen ‘behaving strangely’ by a colleague at the start of her shift at the Deeside Care Home, Aberdeen, on August 13 2016.

A colleague found Ms Gusa sitting on a resident's bed eating crisps and refusing to leave her room after being told to by her husband.

A witness told an inquiry by the Nursing and Midwifery Council that her eyes were “red, rolling and closing, She was staggering when she walked.'

In her statement, she described how the carer, was 'staggering close to falling, and had to hold onto dining furniture to stay upright.”

The NMC panel told how Ms Gusa had expressed "surprise" that she was under investigation and said:  "Her actions by attending work under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs potentially put residents in her care at risk of harm and these actions, alongside the decision making that led to this and her non-engagement with the NMC’s investigation, brought the nursing profession into disrepute."

The carer was hit with a 12-month suspension, which will follow an 18-month interim ban.