A ‘bullying’ senior Hull midwife deserted his shift as ward coordinator to go to an area intercourse store to purchase poppers, a misconduct listening to was advised.
Paul Johnson is dealing with 29 allegations of misconduct that cowl his time as a senior and central member of employees at Hull Girls and Kids’s Hospital.
An worker on the hospital since 2002, he was chargeable for managing and coordinating the labour ward earlier than his 18 month suspension.
Colleagues would consult with Mr Johnson because the Scarlet Pimpernel – the literary character who was an knowledgeable escape artist – as a result of he had a propensity for vanishing whereas on shift, a tribunal was advised.
The midwife can be alleged to have ‘behaved in a bullying or intimidating method’ in the direction of a colleague when an investigation into his conduct started.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council’s misconduct panel heard from two witnesses on Wednesday, who outlined their allegations of bullying and the inappropriate behaviour they skilled whereas working alongside Mr Johnson.
One of many witnesses, identified solely as Witness Three, advised the listening to how Mr Johnson had gloated about leaving a shift to go to a intercourse store referred to as Pulse and Cocktail to purchase poppers.
Witness Three had identified Mr Johnson from her time as a trainee and mentioned he had a repute as somebody who was troublesome to work with.

Paul Johnson was a senior midwife at Hull Girls and Kids’s Hospital and had helped to ship greater than 2,000 infants earlier than he was suspended from his position in October 2020
She did not have any sturdy recollections of her time coaching underneath his supervision, however mentioned when she later returned to work on the hospital after a while away he handled her in a dismissive and condescending method.
The colleague advised the listening to that Mr Johnson would belittle and undermine her in entrance of sufferers only for asking questions or for help, ruining the rapport she had constructed with the ladies she was treating.
Witness Three, who was additionally in a relationship with Mr Johnson, advised the listening to that in one shift as a ward coordinator, he despatched her a message to brag about leaving his submit to go to the intercourse store.
She mentioned: ‘I used to be working in one other ward that day, however I bear in mind somebody saying that he’d advised them he was going out to maneuver his automobile after which hadn’t come again.
‘He despatched me a message to say that he’d gone to Pulse and Cocktails which might be about ten minutes away from the place we work.
‘I bear in mind him coming again and gloating that it had solely taken him a sure period of time and no person had observed.
‘He went out sporting his scrubs with one thing excessive of them. The remainder of us put on uniform until there’s a scenario the place we’d come into contact with bodily fluids, however he wore them on a regular basis.
‘In the long run I believe it was about 18 minutes that he was gone. He’d gone to purchase poppers in there, he used them for his sexual pleasure.

Hull Girls and Kids’s Hospital, the place Mr Johnson was a senior member of employees with duty for managing and coordinating the maternity ward
‘He advised me that he was happening vacation quickly and needed to take some poppers with him and this was his solely likelihood to go.’
Witness Three advised the listening to that this wasn’t the one time that Mr Johnson has deserted his duties to undertake inappropriate actions and mentioned he was well-known inside the hospital for disappearing when wanted.
Such was the repute that Mr Johnson had been dubbed the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ because of his behavior of disappearing whereas on shift.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a personality created by Baroness Orczy who was identified for being a grasp of disguise and disappearing.
Right this moment, the time period is used extra broadly for an individual who’s mysterious, or evasive.
Witness Three advised the listening to that in one occasion she had visited the hospital on a time off to drop off a Starbucks espresso for Mr Johnson who was working.
She says he stepped into the automobile and the pair chatted for round half-hour earlier than he left to return to work.
She mentioned: ‘After he went again in he despatched me a message to say that everybody had been on the lookout for him whereas he was gone as a lady wanted an emergency C-section and he was the senior midwife on that shift.
‘The process required him to be there, employees had even been all the way down to safety to attempt to discover him.
‘He was identified for simply going off and for being present in rooms sat at the hours of darkness on his cellphone in the midst of a shift.
‘If he went lacking employees knew to go and verify the empty birthing rooms as he can be propped up in a nook on his cellphone.
‘Typically although you simply could not discover him in any respect.’
The listening to beforehand heard that Mr Johnson, one among solely 50 male midwives throughout the nation in 2018, is alleged to have taken images of two girls throughout a Caesarean part with out their permission, earlier than sending the pictures to a colleague he was in a relationship with on the time.
The midwife can be alleged to have ‘behaved in a bullying or intimidating method’ in the direction of a colleague when an investigation into his conduct started.
Mr Johnson has not attended the listening to and is unrepresented throughout proceedings.
The listening to continues.