As the finale of Malpractice begins, James Ford (Tom Hughes) sits with Maria Carter (Katherine Dow Blyton) who is deceased. He notices that Sophia Hernandez (Selin Hizli) is calling Maria. James uses Maria’s finger to open her phone before deleting the calls to and from him. He finds an envelope full of papers before hearing a knock at the door. James sees police officers outside her phone. He speaks to a police officer and notices Victoria Hall written nearby. James says Maria was an old colleague and he knew she was struggling with the investigation so he was worried. Once he leaves, he visits Dr. Kate McAllister (Zoe Telford) who considers calling 999. James leaves and finds Will (Joshua Lacey) in his room. James grabs him and tells him to stay out of his room. Sophia learns about Maria’s death on the radio. Dr. Norma Callahan (Helen Behan) and Dr. George Adjei (Jordan Kouame) talk about how horrible Maria’s death is. George says he’s meeting Dr. Armitage and Dr. Hussain wants to consider whether to get involved.
Norma would meet her if she agrees. She’s going to look into the maternity ward’s history. James goes to the hospital to see Sophia. Since she isn’t there, he begins looking for Arun Mansoor (Ace Bhatti). James tells him that Maria killed herself because of Arun and his department. He asks about Victoria Hall. Arun tells Chrissy to call security. James leaves moments later. He tries to learn more about Victoria Hall that night. Martha (Kirsty Averton) knocks on the door and checks on James. Norma can’t get in touch with Rubi. George tells her that Dr. Hussain has agreed to meet them as long as it remains off the record. Norma reveals that Rubi is upset because Ben got suspended and she blames her. George knows she looked him up the other day. He reminds her that’s a breach of data protection. Norma says she did what any decent parent would do. George meets Dr. Armitage (Justin Avoth) who worked with Maria for several years. He claims she was one of the good ones.
Dr. Hussain tells Norma that being supervised was humiliating. She is only a doctor now because her parents would be devastated if she quit. Armitage says the rumors of whistleblowers were silenced by disciplinary action. He didn’t believe them until it happened to him. Hussain (Bairavi Manoharan) says incident reports went nowhere. They also made it harder for them to submit reports. The Trust submitted much lower incident figures to the government as a result. Armitage says some families pursued claims against the Trust, but they were convinced that the trauma or death was unavoidable or the patient’s fault. Hussain hoped they’d value protecting them over the hospital’s reputation. Armitage says the maternity unit is toxic. He doesn’t want to name anyone. Hussain refuses to go on record. Later, Gina (Phoebe Sparrow) tells George about her client. George looks at her design when she’s out of the room. When she returns, he asks her how long she’s been sitting on this. At the office, Norma tells George that QM had a major overhaul about ten years ago.
The Trust was on the brink of bankruptcy. The CQC rated the maternity unit as inadequate. Award-winning obstetrician Eric Sawers (Rick Warden) was appointed as the new chief medical director. The Trust thought he could bring about change alongside QM’s lead obstetrician Arun Mansoor. Within years, they were winning awards and had the best “normal” birth rates. The C-section rates were as low as 14% in 2020. At the time, most other trusts were around 22 to 26%. Norma put in a Freedom of Information request for the Trust’s finances. They immediately blocked it. George says the critical incident data is better than trusts of equivalent size. Norma thinks they need a witness on the inside to go on record. George found out something about Gina’s client. If he shares it, he’ll be breaching the client’s confidentiality. That would likely end their relationship as well. Gina’s firm is creating a redesign of the psychiatry unit at QM. Her client is putting together a bid to purchase the psychiatry unit.
Norma argues that the unit isn’t even for sale. The client is Asquith Archer Residential. They’ve been planning the proposal for a while now. Gina found out about George’s connection a few weeks ago but didn’t tell him. Norma wants to know more about Asquith Archer Residential. James learns that Michelle Dornaway (Charlotte Mills) from the Adult Care Team is there to see him. Michelle and Dr. Amit Shafi (Ash Rizi) are there to check his mental health. Tablets are found in James’s room. Martha said he struggled with his mood before at his last job. James begins telling them about Maria and the Trust. He says they’re trying to pin the blame for Rosie’s death on him. Maria was working with Victoria Hall and they were going to become whistleblowers. Michelle and Amit refuse to believe anything he says. James tells them to ask Kate McAllister (Zoe Telford) only to learn she requested the Mental Health Act assessment. They want to take James in. He says he’ll come voluntarily.
James sees a sign for St. Martin’s Hall. He says he’s going to have a panic attack. When they pull over, James gets out and makes a run for it. Eric tells Sophia that they managed to smooth things over with the Patel family so she can return to work. Arun says Freya Patel had a medical condition that she did not disclose. He claims it was some endocrine disorder. Eric urges Sophia to leave it alone. If it were up to him, she’d be gone. They’ve drawn up an NDA for Sophia to sign. Eric tells her to take it home and read it carefully. Once she’s signed it, she can return to work immediately. George and Norma receive a bunch of boxes from the Trust hoping to slow them down. Norma believes she knows where to start looking. She wonders if the repairs were ever carried out. Norma insists they couldn’t have invested over six million in that building. Martha finds James back in his room. He asks her to just trust him. James says he’s going to fix this. He drives to Victoria Hall and sees if there is an appointment for Maria Carter. He learns that another couple is there to meet her too. Kirsty (Amy Drake) and Johnny (Rob Witcomb) are there to see Maria as well.
Johnny explains that Maria contacted them out of the blue about a month ago. She wanted to talk to them about what went wrong during Aaron’s birth. The hospital reassured them that Kirsty’s experience was normal. The medical notes didn’t mention any of the horrible things that had happened. Maria wanted to support them in taking legal action against the hospital. Johnny doubts they have a chance now that Maria is gone. Sophia gets a message from James asking to meet at The George Pub. She arrives to meet him a short time later. James says Maria told him about the referral. Sophia claims Maria didn’t clearly articulate what was wrong with Rosie. James says she still didn’t get it even after Rosie came back complaining about an infection. He says she needs to make it right. James wants her to go to the MIU and tell them the truth. He admits she’s a victim too and the culture won’t change unless they put a stop to it.
James says other people will get hurt if she doesn’t. Before he leaves, James tells Sophia he’ll see her tomorrow.
Norma tells George and Kathy there is no evidence of how donations were allocated. George says Asquith Archer Residential, owned by Tasmin Warwick, specializes in large-scale redevelopment, excluding NHS hospitals. The next morning, Ford wakes up in his car and calls Hernandez, who is at the hospital. She encounters a distraught Freya (Jessica Temple) and Ravi (Bhav Joshi) in the corridor. She goes to the nursery to see their baby on life support and covers her mouth to muffle her sobs. Outside the hospital, Kate asks Eric if she can take her sabbatical before her new job starts. He says the Trust never had any intention of continuing to employ her after she slept with Ford. During a meeting, Ford claims Maria said there were dozens of couples mistreated by Maternity and gives them documents. Scanning them, George points out that none of the victims are identified. Ford suggests searching the dates in the Maternity database. George says the Trust will never authorize them access and Maria will be blamed. Norma stresses the need to convince someone on the inside to say the files are falsified. He tells them the couple won’t come forward because they are terrified. Hernandez arrives, expresses regret for not getting involved before now, and vows to tell the truth about Maternity’s cover-ups. George warns that it could jeopardize her career. She says the Trust must be held accountable.
At a Board of Directors meeting, Norma explains that they pinpointed problems with the psychiatry department. George says they’ve presided over a dangerous maternity unit while allowing the psychiatry department to crumble. Norma says Eric created a culture of fear and bullying within the maternity unit. He covered up traumatic births and offered no protection to whistleblowers. George mentions that he commissioned a valuation for the psychiatry unit three years ago. All of them signed off to sell the unit. All the while, they lied to staff about working hard to keep the psych unit open. Norma says Eric was manipulating their investigation to ensure the psych unit would close. Eric argues otherwise. Norma scolds Arun and Eric. George asks how many knew Eric intended to personally profit from the sale. He mentions that his brother’s wife, Tamsin Warwick, owned the property company set up to win the contract. He valued the psych building at 32 million, but Tamsin’s company estimates they’ll make up to 60 million from turning the building into luxury flats. The majority of the profits will go into a parent company jointly owned by Tamsin’s husband, Rupert, and his brother, Eric Sawers. Norma says the Trust will be tied up in legal action for years to come. George returns to Gina who asks how he could do that.
Gina tells George she’s been fired. He insists he had no choice. Gina claims that his job destroys people. She gives him the keys back before leaving. James visits Ed Newman (Alex Price) to apologize. Ed goes back inside when he hears the baby crying. James speaks in front of the medical board while Sophia carries a box out of the hospital. James discusses the wider cultural issues within QM’s obstetric department. Eric is taken away by police officers. James mentions removing Rosie’s restraints and the pressure of the MIU’s investigation. The board goes through its decision and says James put his career above Fizz’s best interest. They decide that James’s erasure would not be in the public interest. He’s suspended for 12 months instead. James walks past Kate when he leaves. George meets Liam’s parents, Amy (Emma Stansfield) and Mark (Tom Lorcan). He apologizes and explains he was told all the chest had been done.
He knew something was wrong as soon as he injected the drug. George tries to resuscitate him, but he was already so weak from the cancer. Mark mentions that the hospital and his colleagues put all the blame on him instead of acknowledging the mistakes at the hospital. They hoped he hadn’t left clinical practice because of Liam’s death. They admit they don’t blame him. James returns to The Larkwood Centre’s Willow Ward. Norma finds out that Rubi (Imogen Sandhu) is back.
Malpractice Review
The second series of Malpractice ended on a whimper with an unrealistic conclusion just like the first. In the first series, a drug operation was brought down. In series two, Norma and George stopped Eric Sawers from having the psych unit closed so he could sell it and profit personally.
There were lots of loose ends that weren’t tied up. We know that James was given a 12-month suspension before being allowed to return to work. Sophia was removed from her position. Eric was obviously taken to jail for masterminding the scheme. Nothing happened to Arun Mansoor, Kate, or many of the others who were just as responsible.
It didn’t help that this episode had an equally annoying interview between James, Michelle, and Amit. That was just as obnoxious as the prior interviews with Norma and George. We had the whole thing with George and Liam that fell as flat as a pancake. The stuff with Norma and her daughter was a waste of time as well.
The episode was also filled with silly stuff. Maria’s house was surrounded by press at one point until James arrived, broke out a window, and climbed inside. Norma and George were talking about how terrible Maria’s death was, but they’ve been responsible for driving people to such actions since the beginning of the series.
Ultimately, the series was too cluttered to try to reach the five-episode quota. It’s barely a medical drama and plays out more like a typical crime drama. If the series had stuck to Rosie’s death and that investigation, it could’ve been a lot more effective. Instead, we got a cluttered mess that was twisted like a pretzel until nothing really mattered and the original death was on the back burner.
No one could legitimately watch this on television and catch all the fine details because it’s trying to be so complex. This should’ve been all about Rosie’s death, but it turned into something bigger and bigger with more characters being added to the mix by the minute. The usual tropes are scattered throughout just to reach the required five-episode limit.
With so much corruption going on at the facility, it surely wouldn’t have taken this long to probe it. It’s an awfully big coincidence to just say that this has been going on for years and the impacted patients just accepted it. It’s an overly complex, silly mess that could’ve been so much more.
The episode scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Malpractice can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Join the discussion at the forum.
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.