A nurse has been suspended for two months for concealing the fact Pauline Cafferkey had a raised temperature before she tested positive for Ebola.

The high temperature, noted on December 28, 2014, should have triggered concerns Scots medic Ms Cafferkey was infected with the deadly virus.

Donna Wood suggested a lower temperature was recorded on Ms Cafferkey's form so they could pass through the screening process at passport control at Heathrow Airport more quickly, a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel found.

The panel, sitting in Stratford, east London, told Ms Wood during a hearing on Friday that she would be suspended after finding her fitness to practise had been impaired on public interest grounds.

Following the hearing, Ms Cafferkey accused health body Public Health England (PHE) of employing a "blame culture" against volunteers.

Ms Wood and Ms Cafferkey, who were volunteer nurses returning from Ebola-stricken Sierra Leone, were heading through passport control at Heathrow airport when then their group was pulled aside for screening.

The panel found Ms Wood was aware Ms Cafferkey's temperature, which had been measured twice at 38.2C and 38.3C (101F), was above the nationally-set threshold.

She suggested a lower temperature of 37.2C (99F) be recorded on her screening form, however, so the group could leave the "uncomfortable" and "chaotic" area more quickly.

A temperature above 37.5C (100F) required further assessment by doctors at the PHE screening room.

Ms Wood's lawyer Ben Rich told the hearing these had been "exceptional" circumstances concerning someone who had a 30-year unblemished record.

Najrul Khasru, chairman of the panel, said it had fully accepted Ms Wood's desire to get out of the area quickly was the "primary motivation" of her dishonesty.

Ms Cafferkey told The Guardian: "I am very sorry to hear the outcome of Donna Wood's hearing.

"I still feel extremely disappointed that in making complaints against volunteers who willingly put themselves in danger for the benefit of others, Public Health England employed a blame culture and failed to recognise their own failings - which were many - on the day the volunteers arrived at Heathrow.

"I hope that Public Health England will now acknowledge their mistakes and accept that as a result of these, they took the decision to allow me to fly on to Glasgow, rather than transferring me to hospital in London. I look forward to this continuing ordeal eventually being concluded."

Professor Paul Cosford, medical director at PHE, said the organisation had passed on information to the NMC.

He said: "It was for the NMC to decide if this information needed to be investigated further, which they subsequently did. The outcome confirms the referrals were appropriate.

"The Ebola outbreak was unprecedented with many lessons learned across the global healthcare system, including at Public Health England and we made a number of changes to our processes as the situation developed.

"We screened thousands of returners from countries most at risk of Ebola and did so with efficiency and courtesy throughout."

Ms Cafferkey, from Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, was infected with the Ebola virus while working in Sierra Leone as a volunteer for Save The Children in 2014.

On her return from west Africa at the end of that year, she was quickly struck down and treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

Ms Cafferkey was discharged in January 2015, with doctors saying she had completely recovered and was not infectious in any way.

She was readmitted to hospital twice - in October 2015 and February 2016 - after suffering complications linked to the disease, at one stage falling critically ill.

Ms Cafferkey was cleared of professional misconduct at a hearing in September.