A London midwife has been struck off the medical register for inhaling gas and air in empty hospital rooms.
Olanike Toye was caught inhaling Entonox, a fast-acting mix of gas and oxygen typically used for short-term pain relief in childbirth, at two hospitals over a six-month period between 2022 and 2023, a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel found.
The panel said Ms Toye’s behaviour amounted to misconduct and ordered her immediate erasure for the medical register. Ms Toye has denied using Entonox.
The panel, which met in November and January this year, heard how Ms Toye was caught self-administering Entonox while working at Lewisham Hospital on two separate occasions in September 2022. She was also heard inhaling the gas in a “fervent manner” between February 18 and 19, 2023, while on shift at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
In handing down its finding, the panel said Ms Toye’s actions undermined public trust in the profession and her attempts to learn from her mistakes had been “limited”. The panel wrote: “[We have] concluded that your actions were serious departures from the standards expected of a registered midwife and are fundamentally incompatible with remaining on the register.
“The panel determined that there are regulatory concerns which raise fundamental questions about your professionalism, honesty, and integrity. It concluded that, if the behaviour were repeated, patients would not be safe and public confidence in the profession and the NMC would be undermined. Accordingly, the panel decided that a striking-off order is the only sanction which will be sufficient to protect patients and members of the public, and to maintain professional standard.”
Witnesses told the panel that while on shift at Lewisham Hospital on September 15, 2022, Ms Toye was caught by a colleague in an empty room on the labour ward with the door closed behind her, sucking away at a mouthpiece attached to Entonox tubing.
The colleague, who later became a witness, said Ms Toye looked startled and immediately threw the tube on a bed. She said the midwife’s behaviour left her feeling uncomfortable and she later reported her. Ms Toye said she had been restocking the room.
Days later on September 28, Ms Toye was again found inhaling Entonox behind a closed door in another empty room, it was claimed. The colleague who said they caught her described hearing the distinctive sound of Entonox being used inside the room.
The colleague said they opened the door and saw Ms Toye with Entonox tubing in her hand. She said Ms Toye appeared shocked and threw the tubing behind a bed before appearing “very flustered and disorientated” and losing her balance, knocking into a bin.
The witness said Ms Toye immediately apologised and agreed to go to a recovery room in the labour ward to “gain composure”. Ms Toye told her colleague she was “not the kind of person to do this kind of thing” and appeared concerned she would escalate matters, the panel heard. Ms Toye denied there was a mouthpiece present.
The tribunal heard that Ms Toye was caught again between February 18 and 19, 2023, while working at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Two colleagues said they heard Ms Toye using an Entonox tube in a “fervent manner” from behind a closed door.
When they entered, they said Ms Toye had a tube and mouthpiece in her hand. They said Ms Toye appeared startled, appeared not coherent and “feverishly” tried to put the Entonox tubing away in a cupboard where it is usually stored before stumbling out of the room. Ms Toye said she had entered the room to get various types of birthing balls.
The panel dismissed Ms Toye’s version of events saying it was “inconsistent, vague, and lacking in detail”. They said Ms Toye’s claim the doors to each room she was found in closed automatically was “questionable” and that she did not provide a clear or plausible account of what had occurred or why she had been in any of the rooms.
Ms Toye said she has complied with conditions placed on her practise and returned to community work. She also said she completed training focused on honest communication and trust-building.
The panel said there had been an “element of planning and premeditation” to Ms Toye’s actions claiming she selected rooms that were empty, entered them alone and closed the door behind her. They said on both occasions she had been discovered she appeared “under the influence of Entonox”.
They wrote: “It was clear to the panel that your motive was to use Entonox. Because you denied it, the panel did not know why you had felt the need to use Entonox, but was satisfied that you took it for your own use in the knowledge that it was not yours to take. The panel was satisfied that an ordinary, reasonable person would view this behaviour as dishonest.”
Ms Toye has 28 days to appeal the decision.
