A doctor has been cleared of misconduct, following an investigation into a stillbirth at a Yorkshire hospital.

Catherine Reiss, who was the on-call specialist at Pontefract General Infirmary, was facing allegations that she did not provide a consultant presence on the labour ward at all times and that she did not advise her junior colleague Grace Burden that Marianne Steel, who was on the ward giving birth to her son Joseph, needed help immediately.

The General Medical Council's fitness to practice panel heard that concerns about the baby's heartbeat were first identified at 9am on 31 October 2007 but Marianne's labour continued until well into the afternoon, by which time doctors had decided to carry out an assisted delivery. However, within half an hour they failed to detect a heartbeat and Joseph was stillborn.

The panel found that Miss Reiss was entitled to rely on her team to provide her with accurate information and accepted that she could not spend all her time on the labour ward because she had other on-call duties. However they did criticise a number of organisational failures and warned that lessons may not have been learnt by Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust which runs the hospital. The Steel's have already been awarded damages after the hospital admitted failings in the care provided but Marianne's husband John called for an inquiry into standards of maternity care at the hospital.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/failings_found_at_stillbirth_hospital_1_3506414