Midwife denies forgery and working while suspended

A registered midwife is accused of providing midwifery services while suspended.

Tracey Jayne Goff, of Palmerston North, is facing a charge of professional misconduct over that accusation and allegedly falsely filling out a maternity form by using a forged signature.

She appeared before the New Zealand Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal at a hearing in Palmerston North yesterday. Goff was suspended from practising midwifery after she failed a competence review in April 2015.

Matthew Mcclelland, the lawyer for the Professional Conduct Committee, said the review panel found Goff had not been practising to the standard expected and was a serious risk to the public.

Goff was expected to undergo further education and assessment. She is accused of giving midwifery services to a woman later in 2015, when she was still suspended.

The woman, who has name suppression, was called as a witness yesterday. The woman could not remember whether if she sought Goff out or Goff offered her services.

The woman said she knew Goff did not have a current practising certificate, but thought it was an administrative oversight.

Text and Facebook messages between the two women showed Goff requested the woman’s maternal weight and height and said forms would be faced to a radiologist.

She said she only saw Goff for midwifery services on three occasions.

Goff had later told the woman she was unable to be her midwife, the woman said.

The woman said she had ‘‘felt quite relieved’’ to find another midwife, before having her baby in 2016.

In her opening statement before the tribunal, Goff denied practising when suspended. She said the texts were between friends, not to a client.

Goff said the texts also show she told the woman she could not be her midwife and suggested she find someone else.

She denied signing a midwifery form in someone else’s name and said it was her signature on the form.

The hearing continues today.