MIDGLEY: ON THE LAUGHING GAS AT EAST SURREY HOSPITAL
A midwife gave herself a dose of laughing gas while on the night shift in a hospital’s delivery suite, a tribunal heard.
Fiona Midgley was caught inhaling nitrous oxide at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill – and she also helped herself to a tablet of the sedative chlorphenamine.
Midgley, who was not present but represented at the Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing, admitted the charges and a string of other failings.
These included not flagging up that a patient’s blood pressure had increased to senior staff and giving a patient the painkiller cocodamol without recording it, all on May 16.
The midwife, who was later cautioned by police for theft, accepted her actions amounted to misconduct and her fitness to practise was impaired.
Witness Helen Wickens, a supervisor midwife at the hospital, sent Midgley home after she used the laughing gas during a rest break.
Ms Wickens told the hearing: ‘When I told Fiona she had been heard using the Entonox equipment by her colleagues she admitted it immediately.
‘I therefore felt she should not remain on that shift and should go home but I wanted her to see a health professional first.
‘As it was a night shift, the only place she could do that was A and E but she declined that, and I also offered her a taxi home but she declined that as well.’
The committee adjourned to consider Midgley’s fitness to practise. If it is found to be impaired, she could be struck off.
The hearing continues.
ends
