Midwives to learn misconduct fate after failings in care before newborn's death

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is considering the case of two midwives, Claire Roberts and Joanna Young, over their actions in the care of Pippa Griffiths.

Pippa, from Myddle, near Shrewsbury, died at just one-day-old on April 27, 2016, from a Group B strep infection – the most common cause of meningitis in newborns.

Last year an NMC panel concluded that Roberts and Young had failed in their care for the newborn – with one deemed to have tried to cover up by recording inaccurate records.

The NMC has now opened a hearing to decide whether either midwives' conduct amount to misconduct and if their fitness practise is impaired.

If they conclude they are then the panel would move to deciding on potential sanctions – ranging from a caution order to a striking-off order.

A solicitor representing the NMC said that she believed neither "could safely return to practice without restriction".

Young has given statements and taken part in the disciplinary process but the panel was told Roberts has "chosen not to engage".

The solicitor told the panel deciding on the case: "It is my submission that there is continued impairment of fitness to practice, and neither could safely return to work unrestricted at this stage."

She added: "Particularly because of the dishonesty with Roberts, to a lesser extent the extent to which Young deflected blame onto others."

The panel was told that had the true condition of Pippa been recognised she would have been taken to hospital and her parents, Kayleigh and Colin, would have been spared a harrowing ordeal in their own home.

The panel heard: "She would not have stopped breathing on her mother's lap and they would have been spared the horror of the emergency call and the father doing CPR."

It would also have prevented the family having to be visited by the police – as is required in all similar incidents with deaths at home.

Laura Bailey, representing Young, said that she had "accepted the panel findings in their entirety".

She said the midwife had a "lengthy six years of practice without incident since the allegations arose", and said there had been no incidents prior to her involvement with Pippa.

Ms Bailey said: "It is my position that notwithstanding the fact the charges were not accepted Ms Young had demonstrated insight into what happened, has accepted her failings and from a very early stage did make changes to her practice as a direct result of what happened in 2016."

Pippa's mother, Kayleigh, had given birth at the family home in Myddle and had spoken with the midwives, who at the time worked for Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), to raise concerns that her daughter was not feeding and had brought up brown mucus.

Both Pippa and her mother were eventually flown to Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, where the baby girl was confirmed dead.

The findings from the NMC related to two separate conversations the midwives had with Mrs Griffiths on April 27.

Both were found to have failed to recognise the urgency of a need for medical or midwifery attention for Pippa.

In the case of Ms Roberts the panel found she had effectively tried to cover up over her actions during a 2am call with Mrs Griffiths.

It concluded she had failed to make a record of her conversation with her at the time, and had then made an "inaccurate record".

The panel agreed that her conduct had been "dishonest in that you knowingly intended to create a misleading impression of Mrs Griffiths' concerns regarding Pippa during the telephone call."

In the case of Ms Young the panel concluded she had not followed instructions from a senior midwife to visit Pippa in the morning – and to prioritise the visit as "extreme high importance" or call 999, as well as failing to refer Mrs Griffiths to the newborn feeding guidelines.

The panel also found that while talking to Mrs Griffiths she had failed to carry out a comprehensive triage assessment of Pippa's condition – not asking about her alertness, colour, breathing, or how she was feeding.

The tragedy is one of those that led to setting up of the Ockenden inquiry into maternity care at SaTH.

Mrs and Mrs Griffiths had written to the then Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, jointly with fellow parents Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton whose baby Kate died avoidably while in the care of SaTH.

The panel is expected to re-convene on Wednesday to hand down its decision on whether the failings amounted to misconduct, or impairment to their fitness to practise – if they do the panel will then move to consider any potential sanction.