Camden midwife Jariatu Bah was handed a six-month ban last month after admitting to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) she had given her NHS employers old sick notes that had been tampered with.
On behalf of the NMC, Mr Jayesh Jotangia said the midwife working at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) at the time had done so for financial gain, “constituting fraud”. She was sacked when her dishonesty was discovered.
Ms Bah acknowledged her wrongdoing and said she did not want to “keep hiding behind untruths”. She explained she had provided the doctored sick notes at a time when she was under “work and stress-related issues” for which she had travelled to Sierra Leone to seek alternative treatment.
During that time, she claimed poor phone signal meant she could not get hold of her GP to get another sickness certificate, and had felt “pressurised by constant emails” from her employers asking for one.
Ms Bah said returning home without a sick note covering her absence period left her feeling “desperate and panicked”. At this point her partner’s friend forged a certificate for her which she then gave to the hospital.
However, since the fake certificates had the same unique identifying number as the original, the ruse was figured out not long after. In April 2020 her managers confronted her about the notes, but the midwife kept up the pretence for some time – despite “multiple opportunities” to come clean.
UCLH later dismissed her and referred her to the NMC for misconduct.
Mr Jotangia said the act was premeditated. Ms Bah said her personal and financial circumstances had clouded her judgement.
The panel heard that the number of sick days accounted for roughly £2,000 in salary, which was deducted from her pay upon her dismissal. Ms Bah said prior to this she had intended to pay the money back.
The midwife’s defence team told the NMC panel she was ashamed of her actions and accepted full responsibility as she “wanted to be a good midwife”. They added that it was a one-off incident which happened five years ago and she had not acted dishonestly since.
But while the panel accepted this, they found no evidence she had strengthened her professional practice from reflecting on her mistakes, as the nurse failed to show proof she had undergone more mentoring and training or provide references.
