‘Bitterly
disappointed’ midwife loses case
A
WHISTLEBLOWING former midwife said she was “bitterly disappointed” after losing
her tribunal claim yesterday.
Louise
Westwood, who worked at the Cotswold Maternity Unit in Chipping Norton, claimed
bullying and harassment claims against her were concocted because she had
raised concerns about the welfare of mothers and babies.
She claimed
a partially deaf midwife had left a mother and baby in bed after she failed to
hear a fire drill and another colleague, who was often late, had submitted
incorrect time sheets. Her case against her employer, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, was heard in
Reading.
Judge Andrew
Gumbiti-Zimuto said: “The claimant’s complaints of having suffered determinants
after making a protected disclosure are not well founded and are dismissed.”
Speaking
after the case, Mrs Westwood, from Chipping Norton, said: “I’m bitterly
disappointed by the result but it is something I will have to live with.
“I still
stand by the fact that no bullying or harassment took place.”
Mrs Westwood
was found guilty of bullying and given a written warning after the deaf midwife
made a complaint in April last year. Births at
the unit were suspended in October and a report found a “culture of bullying”.
It reopened on July 1.