Lazy and arrogant NHS midwives kill baby

Staff at one of London’s top teaching hospitals ignored a man’s pleas for help as his newborn baby died, an inquest was told yesterday. Iain Croft, 42, a journalist for the BBC’s World Service, told the inquest that staff at the Royal Free Hospital left him to monitor his child’s faltering heart rate after his wife, Heather Paterson, 43, had begged to see a doctor. Their son, Riley, died of asphyxia 35 minutes after being born, on March 25, 2005, after a ten-hour labour.

Giving evidence at St Pancras Coroner’s Court, Mr Croft said that the couple were initially turned away from the hospital when they reported to have their baby induced. He said: “They said no beds were available. In fact we were taunted by some staff who said, ’There’s no room at the inn, you’ll have to go home’.” The couple waited nearly eight hours the next day to see a doctor, before a midwife who induced the birth told Ms Paterson that she was a “silly girl” who was not really in pain.

Mr Croft said that a midwife had told them, “very firmly” that she would induce the birth herself, by applying the gel Prostin, which immediately left his wife in crippling pain. He said: “Heather’s arms and legs were convulsing because of the intense pain. “Heather was becoming very distressed because of the pain and was literally screaming for someone to come and help her with pain relief or give her a Caesarean section. “I asked several times if my wife could be seen by a doctor and we were refused. The midwife kept saying to her that her pain was not real. She said ‘no pain, no gain. This is what you have to go through, this is what it’s like’. . . . At some time she said to my wife, ‘You are a silly girl. You don’t deserve this baby. I’m going to take it off you’. Six hours later the baby was dead.”

Mr Croft said that two midwives, Ine Toby and Beverly Blankson, ignored the couple’s pleas for help. He was then told to monitor the baby’s heart-rate himself, and to trigger an alarm button if it fell below a certain level. He said: “It did drop three times and I pressed the button each time. In the end I had to go out into the corridor to bring her back in to look at it. She kept telling us not to be so fussy.”

The couple did not see a doctor until shortly before the baby was finally born. Mr Croft said: “All of a sudden the room was filled with doctors attending to the baby and at 8.28am they asked for permission to stop. Our baby was dead.” A postmortem examination, which Mr Croft said staff tried to “bully” him out of having, showed that the child died from asphyxia.

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Australia: State cancer care in crisis

SECRET waiting lists have revealed how Queensland Health consistently exposes cancer victims to deadly treatment delays. Internal hospital documents show hundreds of victims are routinely forced to wait more than three times longer than recommended for potentially life-saving radiation treatment. The "Report on Delay for Treatment" documents show there has been little or no improvement since The Courier-Mail obtained the same figures 10 months ago.

At the time, Health Minister Stephen Robertson downplayed the figures as a week-to-week prospect and insisted the Government was addressing the problem. There is now growing concern in Queensland's hospitals that efforts to address the radiation therapy waiting times have failed.

Coalition health spokesman John-Paul Langbroek yesterday said there was clearly an ongoing problem the Government must urgently address. "People are dying in our system because of these poor services," he said.

According to the figures for the Princess Alexandra, Mater and Townsville hospitals, priority-two patients, who have been diagnosed with aggressive cancers and internal bleeding, are now waiting up to 49 days for radiation treatment. Queensland Health's recommended maximum waiting time is 14 days to avoid "a significant adverse effect on outcomes". Priority-three patients, who predominantly suffer breast and prostate cancers, are waiting up to 69 days for treatment. The recommended maximum waiting time is 28 days. The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital was the only cancer-treating facility in Queensland at or below recommended treatment times.

However, hospital sources said this was because of a shortage of oncologists to refer patients for treatment. A Queensland Health spokesman admitted therapy waiting times were yet to show improvement. "Despite an overall improvement in elective surgery waiting times through the $10 billion health action plan, radiation therapy waiting times continue to be exacerbated by a national shortage of specialist nursing staff and oncologists," he said. The spokesman said Queensland Health would continue to pursue radiation professionals to reduce waiting times.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

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