‘I was sacked for exposing NHS negligence over mother’s death’
Whistleblower claims he was fired for complaining about ‘entirely avoidable’ fatality during childbirth
A SENIOR NHS consultant was sacked after complaining about colleagues’ “clinical negligence” when a woman died giving birth, a tribunal has heard.
Dr Martyn Pitman, 57, who worked as a consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician for 20 years, told the panel that Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust had let him go for “blowing the whistle”.
He said he had become unpopular among hospital managers when complaining about the “entirely avoidable” death of Lucy Howell, 32, in March 2021. Howell died during labour after a recommendation that she have a caesarean section was “lost”.
An inquest into her death revealed that she had been induced into having a natural birth despite a surgeon advising against it following the birth of her first daughter, Rosie, in 2017, which required specialist surgery to repair the wound.
Staff failed to check her records when planning her second child’s birth four years later and she died of a uterine rupture resulting in an amniotic fluid embolism. Her daughter, Pippa, survived. The coroner said there was not enough evidence to prove Howell would have survived if she had undergone a caesarean as advised.
Dr Pitman told the tribunal: “I had not been involved with the management of the case but was devastated to learn about what happened.
“Following a detailed appraisal of her clinical records I raised concerns with Avideah Nejad, clinical director about the management of her care.
“I believed that several aspects of her care represented clinical negligence.”
Dr Pitman said he and colleagues continued to raise concerns to hospital bosses around “dangerously low staffing levels” and “deteriorating standards of care”.
He said he endeavoured to speak up on behalf of the midwifery unit to management owing to being the most senior figure in the department, including “putting his head on the line” when midwives were told to deliver more natural births instead of C-sections.
However, he was sacked from his job at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital (RHCH) in March this year for what he called a “public interest disclosure” and an ensuing “irretrievable breakdown of relations”.
Former colleagues said he had suffered from a three-year “witch hunt”.
Dr Pitman explained to the panel that he had started to see problems following the merger of RHCH with Basingstoke and North Hants Hospitals trust (BNH) in 2012. He claimed the senior midwifery management team “all originated from BNH [and were] appointed on the basis of friendship and peer loyalty rather than professional merit”.
The father of two recalled that “deteriorating midwifery morale” had grown for some time by June 2019 and that “clinical midwives had entirely lost confidence” in the executives.
Dr Pitman lost an appeal to be reinstated in May and is suing both the trust and chief medical officer Lara Alloway for his dismissal.
A Facebook group set up by a former patient, called “Friends of Martyn Pitman”, has 1,666 members and hundreds of posts supporting the “exemplary” doctor.
It has attracted the support of Sarah Parish, 55, the Broadchurch actress, who said Dr Pitman’s care for her following two pregnancies had “saved not only my life, but certainly my daughter’s life”.
The trust said in a statement in July that they “actively encourage staff to speak up when they have concerns, and take all complaints, including grievances and whistleblowing, extremely seriously”.
A spokesman added: “No member of staff has ever been dismissed as a result of whistleblowing or raising concerns around patient safety.
“Unfortunately, we are unable to comment further at this time due to ongoing processes.”
The tribunal continues today.
‘The management team were appointed on the basis of friendship rather than professional merit’