Scandal of the MUSKETEER MIDWIVES
ACCUSED OF BABY DEATH COVER-UP... BUT STILL AT WORK
FIVE midwives who triggered a scandal over baby deaths at an NHS hospital are finally to face justice – after being allowed to keep working there for seven years.
One of the midwives – who dubbed themselves the ‘musketeers’ – has been promoted to ‘risk manager’ of the maternity unit at Furness General Hospital in Cumbria where, according to a major report, a ‘dysfunctional culture’ led to the deaths of at least 11 babies and one mother between 2004 and 2013.
Another faces being struck off over failings she made – years after the scandal first emerged – which left a newborn ‘gasping’ for life.
The horrors – revealed by The Mail on Sunday in 2011 – only came to light after the parents of Joshua Titcombe, who died of a simple infection in 2008 at nine days old, pushed for an inquest and questioned the ‘official’ version of events – which was a whitewash.
At Joshua’s inquest in 2011, midwives who gave evidence were accused of ‘collaborating’ to obscure the truth while coroner Ian Smith even said they might have deliberately destroyed key evidence.
And earlier this year the Kirkup Report found the unit’s ‘overzealous’ midwives pursued natural birth ‘at any cost’, with a ‘strong group mentality’ among the women, known to each other as ‘the musketeers’.
The five – Catherine McCullough, Gretta Dixon, Holly Parkinson, Joanne Marie Watts and Lindsey Biggs, each alleged to have missed vital warnings signs of infection – have never faced a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) fitness to practise panel over Joshua’s death.
In fact, The Mail on Sunday can reveal all five are still employed at the hospital in Barrow-in-Furness and are finally due to go before NMC panels next spring.
Last night Joshua’s father James Titcombe, 37, fumed: ‘I cannot believe it has taken seven years to get this far. The NMC has been absolutely useless. They have done nothing, and as a result these midwives are still practising. I think the general public will find this shocking.’
Joshua died of sepsis, caused by a bacterial infection caught from his mother during his final 35 hours in the womb. A simple jab of antibiotics would have saved him.
Last week Mrs McCullough, 55, who had been the first midwife to see Joshua’s mother Hoa Titcombe after her waters broke, appeared before the NMC accused of failing to spot dangerous fluctuations in a baby’s heart rate in labour, in 2013. She did not ‘escalate’ care to a doctor on time, and the baby was born ‘gasping’ with the umbilical cord tightly wrapped around the neck. Thankfully the baby made a full recovery after resuscitation.
The hearing was told some senior midwives ‘frowned upon’ others asking for advice and ‘ran their own ships in their way’. Mrs McCullough claims this made her reluctant to seek help. Her hearing continues. The next midwife seen by the Titcombes was Ms Dixon, 46, before the birth, who sent them home. She and Mrs McCullough face charges of not referring Joshua’s case to a doctor.
After Joshua was born he was meant to be observed every three hours by Mrs Parkinson and Ms Watts, both 36, and Ms Biggs, 38. But Mrs Titcombe found him blue and barely breathing the next morning. He was rushed elsewhere for specialist care but died.
Mrs Parkinson, Ms Watts and Ms Biggs face charges of failing to observe Joshua properly, with Mrs Parkinson and Ms Watts additionally charged with not escalating his care. Mrs Parkinson is now ‘Acting Maternity Risk Manager’, according to hospital papers.
None of the midwives wished to speak to The Mail on Sunday. David Wilkinson, director of workforce at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Furness General, said: ‘We have co-operated fully with the NMC.’
An NMC spokeswoman said: ‘This has been a complex investigation. We understand the impact of the time taken to get these cases to a hearing on the families involved.’