The episode opens with Dr. Norma Callahan (Helen Behan) stressing the need to keep their investigation into Dr. Sophia Hernandez (Selin Hizli) under wraps and give the impression that Dr. Ford is their target. Dr. George Adjei (Jordan Kouame) tells her he will prepare a report on Rosie Newman and Dr. James Ford (Tom Hughes). She says they must look into Maria Carter (Katherine Dow Blyton). Outside the hospital, Ford tries to contact Maria to no avail. He makes greetings with several people. Kwame Essiedu (Tobi Bakare) informs him of a new bipolar patient, 33-year-old Felicity “Fizz” Templeton. Ford bursts into Fizz’s room to see Precious Danso (Naana Agyei-Ampadu) at her bedside. He has a flashback of Fizz dancing in a club. He promises to stop by later and rushes to the office to find her chart. Kwame hands it to him. Ford scans the document which says Toby brought Fizz to the hospital and she repeatedly mentioned Dr. James but hospital doesn’t employ anyone by that name. He rips the document out of the chart and sticks it into the copier when Kwame returns. Ford explains it is a duplicate. Kwame takes his vape pen and leaves. Forgetting the duplicate, Ford drops Fizz’s chart on the desk and leaves.
George tells Norma that the maternity ward and Hernandez have excellent records. A stressed Ford bursts into Dr. Kate McAllister’s (Zoe Telford) office and informs her of Fizz’s admission. He says a manic episode was brought on by the overdose. After learning, Fizz mentioned a Dr. James, Kate fears someone will find out she helped him cover it up. He says it has nothing to do with her but he disagrees. He claims Fizz never said anything about her mental illness during dinner. Kate recalls him saying they met at a club. He admits they kissed twice and asks why she lied about forcing him to attend Toni’s assessment. She asks if he kissed Fizz to spite her. He says no. She suggests he not visit the ward for a while. Elsewhere, Precious questions the nature of Kate and Ford’s relationship. Dr. Bernadette Asamoah (Jessica Layde) insists Kate would never jeopardize her career for him. During a phone conversation, Ford tells Maria that a midwife mentioned another traumatic birth but wouldn’t elaborate for fear of retaliation. They agree to meet tomorrow morning.
At a pub, George tells Gina (Phoebe Sparrow) that the psych unit is disintegrating and it’s impossible to keep their most vulnerable patients safe. Changing the subject, they discuss their weekend plans. At the hospital, Hernandez reports a problem with the vending machine after it dispensed the wrong item. Ravi escorts her to a room where Freya is in labor. Hernandez performs a pelvic exam. A nurse explains how Freya’s induction was paused due to a full labor ward, and when it was resumed, she wasn’t progressing. Oxytocin was administered and she has been pushing for 40 minutes. Hernandez stops the oxytocin to allow Freya to rest between contractions. Freya pleads with her to make it stop. Hernandez notifies Arun of Freya’s condition and recommends a C-section. He insists she utilize forceps if an obstruction doesn’t exist and promises to be there shortly. A short time later, Fernandez assists with the delivery when the epidural stops working. Unable to get the baby out, she orders the nurse to prompt Arun to get there ASAP, asks Ravi to leave, and alerts the neonatal resuscitation team.
Hernandez tells Freya (Jessica Temple) she’s going to try the forceps. Ravi Patel (Bhavi Joshi) waits outside. Sophia eventually says they need to prepare for a C-section. Arun Mansoor (Ace Bhatti) doesn’t want to do that though. After Arun tries with the forceps, he agrees with Sophia to do the C-section. The baby is eventually delivered by C-section. It looks bad. Sophia tells Arun this was avoidable and they should’ve done the C-section earlier. He tells her to close up Freya. George mentions an inappropriate relationship. Norma tells him not to joke about it because one inappropriate relationship is enough for her to deal with right now. She tells him about Rubi and Ben Munro. Norma contacted the NMR and they’re investigating multiple historic complaints against Maria Carter. She worked on the elderly care ward previously. Ten years ago, a family complained that a relative died due to the poor care Maria provided.
Eight weeks ago, the family contacted NMR to ask for the complaint to be re-examined because they had new evidence. More patients came out of the woodwork with similar complaints. George thinks the timing seems convenient. He questions whether it could be the truth. Maria tells James that the Trust knows they’re in touch and they’ve warned her to stop. Maria explains she referred Rosie to psychiatry when she was on the postnatal ward. The birth was traumatic but no one acknowledged it. She should’ve had a C-section but they went at her with the forceps. In the notes, they just wrote “Normal vaginal delivery, no complications.” Maria says there was nothing normal about the brutality Rosie experienced. She says Sophia told her to cancel the referral. When Maria refused, Sophia claimed Rosie had been seen and she was fine. Maria says she did so many incident reports and the management did nothing. When she took it to the Trust, they threatened to report her to the NMR. When she started her new job, they reported her anyway.
James asks what they’re accusing her of. He says Sophia canceled the referral and is responsible for Rosie’s death. Maria believes he should just drop this. She tells James not to contact her again before leaving. Arun tells Eric that they have a problem. He tells Eric what happened with Sophia last night. Arun says Sophia had been going at the baby with the ventouse and forceps for too long. The baby survived but it’s not good. Arun says it’s going to be very expensive if the baby lives. Eric Sawers (Rick Warden) asks Arun to speak to the family and to keep a lid on this. Eric talks about giving Sophia some time off for the time being and keeping her away from the parents. Gina talk sot George about her client winning a bid. He’s busy reading a letter about Liam. George says the parents of a boy who died want to meet. Gina says he had a tribunal court case and he was cleared. George suggests he owes them a better explanation. James asks Kate if she managed to sort that thing out with Fizz. Kate says she moved Fizz to Mulberry Ward.
Kate says the notes have been dealt with too. James tells her about tracking down Maria Carter who said maternity were covering up multiple problems. Precious comes in and James says good morning. She doesn’t seem happy with him. Sophia is brought in to speak to Arun and Eric about Baby Patel. She learns that the MRI shows a large subdural hemorrhage. Indira (Shereen Martin) works on her phone in the background. Sophia is told it’s unlikely the baby will recover. Eric asks why she persisted on going an assisted vaginal delivery instead of doing a C-section like Mansoor told her. They accuse her of wasting 20 minutes. Sophia is told to take some time off. Arun tells her to stay with the children. They know she’s struggled with things since the divorce. Sophia defends herself, but Eric refuses to listen to anything she says. Eric tells Sophia she was recorded on CCTV stealing from the vending machine. Arun tells her to stop by Estates and pay for what she took. George tells Norma he pulled the HR records of the doctors who had complaints made against them.
The two anesthetists regularly worked on the labor ward. Both junior doctors did rotations in obstetrics. One anesthetist said he was only reported because he raised concerns about obstetrics. Norma admits it’s the same for cardiology and GP trainees. Both anesthetists were reported to the MIU by patients after they met with Trust representatives. It’s possible the Trust pushed those patients to make a complaint. George tells Norma about meeting with Liam’s parents. She doesn’t think that’s a good idea. Kate gets a call telling her that the Chief Medical Director, Eric Sawers, wants to see her on Thursday. Norma meets Ben Munro (Neil Pendleton). She tells him that she’s Rubi’s mom. Norma wants him to leave her alone so Rubi can return to the university. Ben says they had a relationship after Rubi pursued him. That had nothing to do with Rubi’s decision to leave. Ben says Rubi only did medicine to please her. Norma threatens to tell everyone if he doesn’t resign.
Eric tells Kate that the psychiatry unit will likely have to close. Rosie’s death was the final straw. Eric says they may merge with Oakwell. If that happened, they’ll be looking for a new director of psychiatry. Eric thinks Kate would make a good candidate. Indira says the optics are great since she’s young, female, and ambitious. Eric says they just need to clear up one thing. Kate is shown the photo of her kissing James Ford. Kate insists she didn’t lie to protect James. She goes on to say it’s not like that. Indira tells her she abused her position plain and simple. Eric tells her what they’re going to do. James arrives late and apologizes to Charlie (Stephen Thompson). Samira thinks they’re all actors. James is surprised to see Maria on television. He tries to calm Samira who accuses them of being actors. Sophia sees the same news report from home. She tries to call Maria who is being harassed by the press. Kathy (Adei Bundy) asks George and Norma if they have a moment. Kate is there to see them because there’s something they need to know.
James tries to get in touch with Maria to say he saw the news. When he tries to enter the facility, he’s stopped by police. Precious tells Kate that everyone knows about her relationship with James because Aislene saw them together. Kate scolds her for reporting it based on Aislene. Precious tells her she’s not very good at her job.
Eric questions Ford about his encounter with Fizz on July 15 at a club. Norma and George are in attendance. Fizz ingested ecstasy that belonged to Ford and fell ill. He bypassed a nearby A&E and transported her to North Yorkshire Hospital. He identified himself as Toby Tait instead of providing his real name. The ecstasy triggered a manic episode and Fizz was admitted to Willow Ward. Trying to conceal his involvement, Ford arranged a transfer for her. Norma says he was in possession of ecstasy, a Class A Drug, which is a criminal offense. Ford denies giving Fizz the ecstasy. George criticizes him for putting his career first and Fizz’s health second. Ford attributes what happened to his work being picked apart. He argues that the incident occurred outside the hospital. Norma claims they were close to declaring him fit to practice. Surprised, he suggests they are aware of Hernandez stopping Maria’s mental health referral. Eric places him on suspension. Ford says it’s not just Rosie because Obstetrics fractured Tony’s baby’s skull with forceps and blamed her. Eric orders security to remove Ford from the premises. He believes Norma and George agree with him. After the meeting, George questions the motive behind Maria and Ford’s suspension. He tells Norma that the Trust may be trying to shift their focus from Obstetrics. He recalls Ford’s claim regarding Toni’s baby.
Ford asks Kate if they offered her a promotion to ruin his life. She admits to reporting him to save her career and claims to have been with him for the sex. She goes inside and breaks down sobbing. A short time later, Ford sees Maria unconscious in a chair inside her house. Frantic, he breaks a window, unlocks the door, and tries to wake her to no avail. Pill packs are lying on the floor.
Malpractice Review
As we get closer to the finale of Malpractice, it’s clear that the writers have gone off the rails. The story is far too complicated to the point that it’s difficult to even remember what it’s about at this point. Furthermore, it’s hard to remember who some of the characters are because they only sporadically show up.
Then, we have all the believability issues that make the whole story feel stupid and frankly pointless. It had potential and could’ve succeeded if the focus had been on Rosie’s suicide and the possible negligence surrounding it. Instead, it’s quickly becoming about the trust which will probably be brought down in the end.
How many clichés or twists has the story had at this point? It’s nonsense honestly. We have James being blamed for Rosie’s death. He’s also accused of complicating Toni’s delivery, being in a relationship with his much older boss, living too far from the hospital, bullying Sophia, and contributing to Fizz’s suicide.
Sophia has a bunch of things against her. Norma is trying to keep her daughter away from a predatory professor. George has a possible meeting with the parents of the kid who died in his care. That’s probably half of it. Unfortunately, Malpractice has become an exhausting, unbelievable mess.
That’s a shame considering the core story could’ve been very interesting. If the series had only been two episodes, the writers wouldn’t have found it so difficult to create a compelling story without going overboard with the twists and turns. This episode scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Malpractice can be found here.
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Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.