Malpractice

Right, the facts are, Lucinda,

you had to deal with a gunshot victim,

so you left Edith Owusu in Ramya's capable hands

with a clear management plan, which you, Ramya, followed.

You chose to leave Edith with a doctor

whose incompetence has been shown and that choice killed her!

Edith Owusu died following the self-administration

of a large quantity of fentanyl.

I assume we're done. You know that's not how this works.

When it's an accident, you look at what caused the accident.

The drugs. PHONE RINGING

Camilla, hi. I'm the new doctor that took over from Rob.

How do you pay Rob?

I pay the pharmacy, like I usually do.

This is Jubair Singh. Nice to meet you.

He's the owner of the Wellspring Pharmacy chain.

Instead of complaining, you should focus on your work,

and you wouldn't make so many mistakes.

I may have mentioned a dispensing error that you made.

What? Take a look at that.

Lucinda told me to get 40 milligrams.

I even questioned the dose at the time.

Abi? What you doing? Abi?

Go on, move!

Please help! I think she got hold of some diazepam.

Luc, it's Tom. You have to come to the hospital.

We're in A&E. It's Abi. She's really sick.

Right, I'll just be down the end of the corridor,

so if you need anything just give me a shout, OK?

Thanks.

Wait, wait, wait. Tom. I'll be back in a bit.

Just wait one second.

I was just coming to see you. How's she doing?

Yeah, she's doing really well.

They're just waiting for her bloods to come back.

And once they're clear, we can take her home.

Yeah, well, before you do that,

we need to discuss this social services referral.

What? Can I see it? Beth, let me see it.

Beth, you can't send this. You said it was an accident.

Well, it was an accident, but social services won't see it that way.

They'll just take Abi and... What if the MIU find out about...

God, Jesus, please. Look, look, look, look.

I asked Lucinda to throw out my tablets out ages ago.

Please don't punish Abi for my mistake.

Please, Beth.

OK.

Sometimes, referrals get lost, so I'll sort it out.

SHE EXHALES Thank you.

Thank you.

I need to get some air.

You need to sort yourself out. What are you talking about?

No, if I catch you stealing any more meds from my store in A&E,

I'll report you to the MIU myself.

Do you understand me, Lucinda?

Do you understand me?

I'm sorry, I have to...

I have to check on my kid.

DOOR UNLOCKING

SHE EXHALES

Where were you yesterday?

I told you, I went for a walk.

Why was your phone switched off?

Jesus, Tom, if I knew what was going on,

I wouldn't have turned it off.

That doesn't explain why it was switched off.

Are you still using diazepam?

No.

Where did Abi get those tablets from, then?

We were playing upstairs earlier.

She must've found an old strip of mine, I don't know.

Look, I really wanna help, Luc,

but you're gonna have to start telling me the truth.

Tom, I stopped taking diazepam when I went back to work.

OK? I told you that.

I told you, you shouldn't have gone back to work.

I said you weren't ready, didn't I? What were we meant to do, Tom?

Because you barely have a job,

and I have to pay for things around here, don't I?

You need help.

Come here, I'm sorry. OK? I didn't mean that.

What are you doing? We're leaving.

What? Why?

Why? Because you lied about the drugs.

I didn't, Tom. I didn't. Oh, just stop it. Stop it, Lucinda.

Right, you put our daughter's life in danger.

You've been acting off for weeks.

I don't know, maybe it's the investigation,

maybe it's the drugs, maybe it's just you.

I don't know, but whatever it is, you need to sort it out.

Tom, please listen to me. I do not take drugs.

OK? I swear on Abi's life. On Abi's life?

You swear on Abi's life? Seriously?

That is low, especially after yesterday.

I'm taking Abi to my parents' house until you sort out your priorities.

Right, the first item on the agenda of this month's meeting

is the inquest into Edith Owusu's death

and the prevention of future deaths report, summarised in appendix A.

As you can imagine,

the report risks serious damage to the Trust's reputation.

It says here that if we don't provide a satisfactory response

to the coroner's report,

the Trust is at risk of losing its trainees.

Is that correct? Yes. And we can't afford that.

The hospital's finances are precarious,

and we receive a substantial amount of funding

from the deanery to train doctors.

As I'm in charge of medical education,

I will liaise with Leo Harris about that.

Great. This is a priority, keep us updated on the progress.

Erm, right, the next issue I'd like to raise is Dr Lucinda Edwards.

It's come to my attention

that her three-year-old daughter was admitted into A&E yesterday

having taken diazepam.

If social services get involved further down the line

and it comes to light that she's also being investigated by the MIU,

it will not look good for the Trust.

So, what are you suggesting we do?

Well, we can get ahead of any negative press

if we terminate her contract now.

If she remains in post and the MIU strike her off,

it's not gonna look good.

Lucinda is still technically a trainee...

..and as a teaching hospital, we're responsible for her welfare.

We can't just cut people loose when it suits us.

I have to agree with Corinne.

I think the Trust would look incredibly... unsupportive

if it sacked Dr Edwards

before any investigations were completed, Mike.

Lucinda is not a trainee in difficulty, she's a liability.

Let's take a vote.

All those in favour of Dr Edwards remaining in post, raise your hand.

Right, come on. Come on now. OK.

Gonna have a nice time at Granny and Grandy's house, yeah?

Yeah. Mummy's gonna give you a call later.

I could...

Tom, I could drop over some dinner for her, some fish and chips.

Would you like some fish and chips, sweetie?

Yeah. And some ice cream?

Yeah. Ice cream and jelly?

Oh, that'd be lovely, wouldn't it?

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye.

OK, see you later. Bye-bye. Bye, sweetie. Bye-bye.

Oh, Tom. Tom.

SOBBING

PHONE BUZZES

Hello? You all right there?

Hi. Hi.

I'm Dr Edwards. I'm here to amend a prescription.

Oh, right, it's just down there and then up the stairs.

All right? Thanks.

KNOCKING ON DOOR

Come in.

Ah. Jubair Singh.

Yeah, I know who you are, we met before.

Yeah, we met at the Patient Care Awards. Yeah.

Please, take a seat, Lucinda.

I understand you came into one of my pharmacies yesterday

and accused my dispenser of taking an extra payment

for a prescription you wrote.

What was that about?

Is Camilla Woodham a patient of yours?

No. You know she isn't.

Why did you write her out a prescription, then?

Are you being serious right now?

She is an addict

that you're illegally selling prescriptions drugs to.

OK? And I know she's not the only one.

I'd be careful what you accuse me of, Lucinda.

I'm gonna to report you to the MIU.

If you were gonna do that, you'd have done it already,

but you haven't, have you?

I've been to a meeting of the Hospital Trust Board this morning

where your future was discussed.

Your daughter's overdose is gonna look a whole lot worse

if they find out you've been hiding a diazepam addiction, isn't it?

You keep quiet, and I can keep quiet.

We don't need to cause each other any trouble.

Do we?

No.

OK.

Thanks for coming in.

Oh, and if you haven't already,

make sure you throw Rob's phone away.

Just incriminates you more than me.

Hello, hello. Ooh. Thanks.

Here you are. Lovely.

That's not oat milk, is it? No, it's normal milk.

SHE GROANS Sorry, we ran out.

I can go get some.

No, it's all right. We better crack on.

You sure? So...

We've got Lucinda potentially prescribing Edith Owusu fentanyl

then trying to make it look like a suicide attempt

to direct attention away from the drugs.

That's enough to get Lucinda struck off.

Well, it's worse than that.

I mean, if she prescribed the drugs that killed Edith,

her parents could easily bring a criminal case against her.

I just don't understand why