EXPERTS are to decide whether a 'musketeer midwife - involved in the care of two babies who died - should be permanently struck off the national nursing register.

Sacked Furness General Hospital worker Lindsey Biggs will face a five day fitness to practice hearing at the Nursing and Midwifery Council headquarters next week.

The formal process will be used to determine whether the midwife is fit to deliver more babies in the future after she was found to have caused Dalton newborn Joshua Titcombe to lose a significant chance of survival in 2008.

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The little boy, who was suffering from a treatable infection, died aged nine days old after Ms Biggs failed to properly monitor his condition or refer his case to a doctor on Barrow's scandalised maternity unit.

A second midwife involved in Joshua's care, Holly Parkinson, has already been dealt a nine month suspension order for failing to properly care for the little boy.

Baby Joshua's death was later found to be at the centre of repeated failings at FGH resulting in the avoidable deaths of 11 babies and one mother between 2004 and 2013.

The scandal, investigated by patient safety expert Dr Bill Kirkup in 2015, was said to have been the result of poor clinical skills and the pursuit of natural childbirth at all costs by a group of midwives who referred to themselves as The Musketeers.

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Ms Biggs was sacked by hospital bosses earlier this year following the death of a second baby in her care.

An independent investigation into the tragedy, which occurred in March, was launched before concluding her conduct had fallen 'fundamentally below acceptable standards'.

NMC bosses subsequently suspended her licence to practice for 18 months in a bid to 'protect the public' while they undertake their own inquiry into the case.

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