THE mother whose son’s birth was at the centre of allegations of negligence that resulted in the striking off of a midwife has criticised her employers at Health and Social Services for not supporting her. After the 29-year-old woman complained about the treatment she had received from Linda Cantillon, she claimed HSSD offered her three options.
‘HSSD said I couldn’t work on the maternity ward as an auxiliary any more so it offered me a transfer, or paid leave pending a disciplinary, or I could hand in my notice,’ she said.
‘I didn’t ask for a transfer and I said I didn’t want paid leave because I would not want it on my record as it was not me being disciplined.’
She said that she felt that the department had offered her no support during a very traumatic time.
‘It wanted it over with quickly, with the fewer people knowing about it the better,’ she said.
‘It didn’t want the story to get out. I have kept my mouth shut for four years but now it’s out, why should I anymore?’
She reluctantly agreed to be transferred to another ward because she had found it too difficult working on the ward where she had received her treatment.
‘I didn’t feel comfortable being on the ward so I transferred. But I was still really angry about it being forced on me,’ she said.
She added that she also received a mixed reaction from her colleagues.
‘Some of the staff supported me but some of them didn’t want the comeback,’ she said.
‘Obviously, when something like this comes out, the whole ward is affected.’
As Ms Cantillon’s tribunal approached, the mother met someone from HSSD.
‘I think HSSD was interested only in what I was going to say when I testified at the tribunal,’ she said.
‘That’s how the department made me feel. It said that we would have another meeting after the tribunal, but I haven’t heard from it. HSSD wasn’t interested in how I was feeling. Reliving it all at the tribunal was traumatic for me.
‘It makes me so angry because I felt as if the department had turned its back on me, even though it is my employer.’
Article posted on 11th October, 2007 - 12.00am
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