More than 120 NHS midwives have been awarded almost £750,000 after being exposed to high levels of nitrous oxide at Basildon University Hospital in Essex. The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said staff were exposed to the gas between 2021 and 2023 due to poor ventilation on the maternity unit and leaking pipes.
Nitrous oxide, often used for pain relief during labour, is safe for medical purposes, but prolonged exposure can cause exhaustion, anaemia and even potential neurological damage. Midwives on the ward reported experiencing fatigue, headaches, brain fog and anxiety, and later launched a compensation bid through their trade union.
Legal action and settlement
Thompsons Solicitors, working with the RCM, took legal action on behalf of more than 120 workers, including roughly 80 RCM members, with a settlement of almost £750,000 agreed. Daniel Poet, partner and disease specialist at Thompsons Solicitors, said: "We’re proud to have secured compensation for our clients, but they should never have been put at risk in the first place."
Poet added: "The trust knew about the dangers in 2021, but staff weren’t told until the following year and it took another year for safety measures to be introduced. That delay is unacceptable. Lessons need to be learned. This is about protecting workers today and for generations to come. Staff must be able to trust that their health and safety comes first."
Independent review findings
An independent review two years ago by the Good Governance Institute found an "unacceptable delay" by Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust in its response to concerns about dangerous levels of the gas. The report found midwives and other staff on the maternity unit were "exposed to unnecessary risk or potential harm". High levels of gas on wards "needed to be treated as a significant risk to health" when concerns were raised in July 2021, but this was not done until October 2022.
Gill Walton, chief executive and general secretary of the RCM, said: "For years, midwives at Basildon were breathing in nitrous oxide at dangerous levels while they cared for women and babies. Even once the problem had been discovered, it was more than a year before staff were told. That is simply not acceptable and no midwife should ever be treated that way."
Trust and government response
Walton hailed the settlement as a "landmark" for RCM members and said it "should make every NHS employer sit up and take notice". The RCM stressed that gas and air is safe for women to use for pain relief during labour, and that the case was about "the conditions midwives were working in, not the gas itself."
Louise Crosby, chief nursing and quality officer for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We have acknowledged that we should have acted faster to address the issues and have apologised to staff. Since the incident we have learnt lessons, and as part of this, we have improved our oversight of the monitoring of medical gases across the maternity unit at Basildon Hospital."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Every patient and member of staff should feel safe when in NHS hospitals. That is why this Government is investing £271 million specifically targeted to address critical safety risks across the NHS’s maternity and neonatal estate, so we can give the best possible protection to mothers, babies, and the staff who look after them."
