GLASGOW’S health board has launched an investigation following claims a nursing assistant posted sectarian and homophobic tweets and talked of ‘fighting for the IRA’.

Twitter messages posted in the name of Collette Docherty, who works at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, used offensive language including orange b******* in tweets shown to the Evening Times and described the poster as, “an NHS worker just waiting for my perfect job”.

The Twitter account has now been taken down.

One of the tweets said: “A woman’s place is not at home, the fight for freedom is still goes on, I took up my gun until freedoms day, I pledged to fight for the IRA.”

The post was liked by 28 people and retweeted three times.

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Another post says: “Scotland, where saving the queen and their flag is more important than feeding their weans and saving the NHS” and refers to a ‘Poppy loving pr***” in another and uses the homophobic term p*** in another tweet.

The Evening Times went to the nursing assistant named in the Twitter messages yesterday at her home in Bargeddie to ask her if the Tweets were genuine. She denied she worked for Glasgow Royal Infirmary and threatened to call the police.

We showed the social media posts to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, who said the case was under investigation.

An email sent by NHSGGC’s head of complaints, seen by the Evening Times, said the case had been referred to the industry regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

NHS social media policy states that employees posting material which may incite hatred will be subject to Disciplinary Policy and other associated policies such as Dignity at Work.

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A spokesman for the health board said: “We have a social media guidance which applies to all staff and this case is currently being investigated.”

In July, Twitter announced it was updating its policies to address hateful language directed at religious groups. It lays out specific examples of content targeting members of religious groups that should be removed if reported.