A WHISTLEBLOWING former midwife said she was “bitterly disappointed” after losing her tribunal claim yesterday.

Louise Westwood, who worked at the Cotswold Maternity Unit in Chipping Norton, claimed bullying and harassment claims against her were concocted because she had raised concerns about the welfare of mothers and babies.

She claimed a partially deaf midwife had left a mother and baby in bed after she failed to hear a fire drill and another colleague, who was often late, had submitted incorrect time sheets. Her case against her employer, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, was heard in Reading.

Judge Andrew Gumbiti-Zimuto said: “The claimant’s complaints of having suffered determinants after making a protected disclosure are not well founded and are dismissed.”

Speaking after the case, Mrs Westwood, from Chipping Norton, said: “I’m bitterly disappointed by the result but it is something I will have to live with.

“I still stand by the fact that no bullying or harassment took place.”

Mrs Westwood was found guilty of bullying and given a written warning after the deaf midwife made a complaint in April last year.

Births at the unit were suspended in October and a report found a “culture of bullying”. It reopened on July 1.