A nurse has been suspended after she walked out on sick babies at Dewsbury hospital to go and babysit for her cousin.
Ruth Baker, a sister at the neonatal unit, has been found guilty of abandoning her post, leaving critically ill newborns uncared for and labelling a baby with the wrong name tag.
The nurse of more than 20 years standing has been found guilty of three incidents of misconduct between 2010 and 2012.
A conduct hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council in London heard she had failed to tell anyone that she would be leaving early when she walked out on colleagues 1 hour and 20 minutes before her shift was due to end.
Ms Baker, who was in charge of the night shift on April 18/19, 2010, also left a vulnerable 27-week-old baby unsupported and failed to administer vital drugs to another baby.
The hearing was told she had tried and failed to book the shift off as holiday but it had been denied.
She arranged cover for herself from 6am but her plan was scuppered when the back-up nurse rang in sick.
But at 6.10am she left anyway, pleading with one senior doctor to “not leave the unit until the day staff arrive”.
One of the nurses left behind admitted to the committee that she had not been trained in how to use a ventilator that one of the sick tots was hooked up to.
Despite the serious incident she remained working at the hospital.
But two further incidents then occurred in February 2011 and March 2012.
The hearing was told she had failed to do the paperwork over her involvement in the treatment and resuscitation attempts of a baby that had died.
She was also accused of confusing one baby for another and failing to record one child’s time of birth.
A number of other administrative breaches in her work on the high dependency unit at Dewsbury District Hospital were also noted.
Ms Baker, who first registered as a midwife in 1991, did not attend the five-day hearing which began on March 17, and was not represented.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council committee proceeded in her absence and found that her fitness to practise was impaired.
All but two of the 18 charges against her proven.
The panel took into consideration ‘exceptionally good’ references from senior members of staff from the neonatal and maternity units and the ‘difficult personal circumstances’ she was experiencing at the time of the incidents.
Ms Baker was given a six month suspension order but the hearing panel decided not to strike her off the nursing register in light of her previously unblemished record.
Ms Baker is no longer employed by the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust.
Click here to take you back to more Huddersfield news.
Want to read, watch and hear more? You can download the FREE Examiner Apple App here, the FREE Examiner Android App here or you can view the paper as an e-edition on your Apple, Android or Kindle device by clicking here
To follow us on Twitter click here
