Medi's midwife
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 8:12 pm
A midwife told a black mother she should be in the Guinness Book of Records because she had given birth to ‘such a white baby,’ a tribunal heard today.
Bernadette McDaid is alleged to have made the comments after a complaint was made against her by the patient.
The 52-year-old appeared in front of a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) disciplinary hearing today accused of a number of offences, including blowing the whistle on a case in which foster parents were not told that their baby was HIV-positive.
McDaid was struck off in 2012 for going public with the story, but after a successful appeal at the High Court she now faces fresh proceedings against her.
She is charged with breaching patient confidentiality as well as a string of other allegations including aggressive behaviour towards colleagues and making ‘inappropriate’ comments to a patient.
Althea Daley, team leader at Deanery Road Midwifery Group Practice, told the hearing in Aldwych, London that a new mother, known only as Patient A, had complained about McDaid and asked to be removed from her care.
When asked by McDaid about the complaint, Ms Althea replied: ‘She [the patient] called the office and complained about one of the midwives - that midwife was you.
‘She said she didn’t want you to come back to her home, to provide her with any further care. She didn’t want you back in her house and the reason being, you made a derogatory remark about her child, her family.
‘She gave me examples of three things, and you said, “oh my God, the baby is very white”. Secondly you said, “have you had an egg donation?” and “have you been mistaken for the nanny?”.’
McDaid denied this, saying she had asked to be taken off the case in January 2009 because she was offended by the patient’s husband who kept going on about ‘his Aryan genes being superior’ to hers.
She said she had complained about the patient to Ms Daley on February 14, but the witness said this was not the case.
