Health boss: Midwife should have sounded alert

12 April 2012

The maternity ward at a leading London hospital became so busy because of a spiralling birth rate that it was considered unsafe, a hearing was told.

Staff at the Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea Hospital unit had to turn away hundreds of women in 2004 and 2005. Director of midwifery at the time, Margaret Elliott, admitted it was a "stressful" place for her midwives to work.

The claims were made at a misconduct hearing into a midwife who allegedly failed to spot the dangerously low heartbeats of two babies in his care - one of whom died and the other had to be resuscitated. Ms Elliott said: "The delivery suite is very high pressured, it has all the high-risk women in it.

"At that time, the birth rate in London was rising considerably and we had to put a cap on the number of births we had because we were getting an increase of 600-700 births in one year. We made a decision that the situation was becoming unsafe because the numbers were rising more than we could cope with, so we put a cap on the numbers. That improved things considerably and we were turning away 60-70 women a week at one point."

But she denied the conditions on the ward would have prevented Mukozoke Ferguson, 53, calling for help over the two babies.

The registered nurse qualified as a midwife in 2001 and went to work at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in April 2002, a misconduct hearing of Nursing and Midwifery Council was told. He faces being struck off the medical register if he is found guilty of a lack of competence.

The first incident occurred in January, 2004, involving a 19-year-old woman who arrived in labour. The baby's heart rate began to drop after Ferguson gave the woman a drug to increase the frequency of her contractions, the hearing heard. The midwife then left the teenager alone in the final stages of labour, it was claimed.

The baby's heart rate fell again to an "abnormal" level and when the baby was born he was "floppy" and needed to be revived, the hearing was told. Ferguson was suspended in February 2004 and did not return to work until May 2005 under supervision.

But the midwife made similar errors on his first unsupervised shift in September 2005, it was claimed. He allegedly failed to report an "abnormal" foetal heart rate, only trying to find help eight hours later. Ferguson failed to call for help and the baby was stillborn, the hearing was told.

Rosemary Paul for the NMC said: "There was no question that the care provided by Mr Ferguson was in question." Ferguson, of Northolt, has admitted a lack of competency in his midwifery but not in his practice as a trained nurse. The hearing continues.

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