A FORMER midwife who resigned after a dispute with bosses over emergency protocol has claimed a safety "rule book obsession" is putting lives at risk.

Anne Duffy, now a senior nurse with NHS 24, said professionals should be allowed to exercise their own judgment in emergency situations instead of sticking to rules and regulations.

Ms Duffy claimed she faced a similar situation to the Alison Hume case while working as a midwife at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.

Mrs Hume suffered a heart attack and died after spending more than seven hours at the bottom of a mine shaft in Ayrshire in July 2008. A Fatal Accident Inquiry ruled the 44-year-old should not have died and some degree of “imagination, flexibility and adaptability” should have been used in the rescue.

Ms Duffy said she was working in the Paisley hospital in April 2009 when a pregnant woman became ill in the Outer Hebrides and the 52-year-old took the decision to leave her post and help airlift the patient to Glasgow.

Hospital management later launched an investigation saying she had breached protocol and should not do it again if the same situation arose.

However, Ms Duffy chose to resign, claiming she was being told to let people die. She later launched a case for constructive dismissal against NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde but lost.

Mrs Hume’s case was used throughout Ms Duffy’s tribunal as an example of what can go wrong if regulations are followed too rigidly.

Ms Duffy said: “The guidelines and the rules are not always adequate in emergency situations and often are ill-designed.

“As far as I’m concerned, human life is precious and policies and guidelines on emergency situations need to reflect that. Professionals must be trusted to use their judgment and should be able to think outside the box.

“It’s the same rule book obsession and policies which management persist in adhering to which resulted in Alison Hume losing her life and, in my case, could have resulted in a mum and her baby losing their lives.

“What happened in Alison’s case could have happened in my case had I not used my professional judgment and acted the way I did, but according to management I shouldn’t have done it.

“I used my professional skills to save a human life and was unfairly treated for that, but I have absolutely no regrets.”

Speaking about Mrs Hume’s case, Ms Duffy said: “Senior fire officers made the decision not to allow their staff to go down to save her instead of allowing them to assess the situation and use their own skills and knowledge to make a decision.

“The fire personnel at the scene wanted to go in and save her, but they couldn’t because senior management were adhering to the rules.”

She added: “It must have been horrendous for them to stand by the mine shaft and listen to Alison crying out for help when I’m sure they had the skills to help rescue her.

“I can imagine they’ll need counselling and will struggle to forgive themselves.”

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