Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing
NMC panel strikes off midwife Katie Windle over rudeness and failings in maternity care
The Nursing and Midwifery Council's Fitness to Practise Committee has struck midwife Katie Louise Windle off the register after finding she was rude to patients, incorrectly advised pregnant women not to attend hospital, and failed to uphold patients' dignity at a Doncaster NHS trust.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 7 May 2026 · Updated 9 July 2026
Erasure (struck off the register)
Added to MedicWatch: 9 July 2026Report a correction
What does “struck off the register” mean?
Being struck off (the regulator calls this "erasure") removes the practitioner from the register. They are no longer permitted to practise this profession in the UK. Erasure can be reviewed after a minimum of five years, but is otherwise indefinite.
Concerning Katie Louise Windle, midwife (Nursing and Midwifery Council 18A0198E).
Decision date: 7 May 2026 · Hearing started 1 May 2026 and ended 7 May 2026
In plain English
The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found that Katie Louise Windle, a midwife working in triage at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was rude to patients, failed to examine a patient in labour adequately, incorrectly advised patients not to attend hospital, and did not respect patients' dignity or birth wishes. The panel decided her fitness to practise was impaired and made a striking-off order, removing her from the register.
Charges
Charges that, as a registered midwife, she: failed to conduct an adequate examination of Patient A to determine their stage of labour and incorrectly determined they were in the latent phase of labour (1b); failed to advocate for Patient A's birth wishes to have a pool birth and a physiological third stage (2a, 2b); incorrectly advised Patient B not to attend hospital (4); was rude to Patient B and/or their partner (5a-5h); failed to cover up Patient B's exposed lower body, made them walk in a public area with their trousers around their ankles, and failed to offer a change of clothing (6a-6c); failed to provide pain relief to Patient B at the appropriate time (7b); inserted her hand into Patient B's vagina and roughly removed the placenta (8); was rude to Patient C and/or their partner (9a, 9b); failed to perform an Amnisure vaginal test on Patient D and instead asked the patient to perform their own test (11a, 11b); and incorrectly advised Patient E not to attend hospital (12). Charges 1a, 3, 7a and 10 were found not proved.
Findings
The panel found 22 charges proved concerning five patients between November 2020 and October 2022, while Mrs Windle worked as a Band 6 midwife in the triage department at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It determined her actions fell seriously short of the standards expected of a registered midwife and amounted to misconduct, breaching the Code's requirements including treating people with kindness, respect and compassion and upholding their dignity. The panel found her fitness to practise currently impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds, identifying a repeated pattern of poor behaviour indicating deep-seated attitudinal issues, limited insight, and no evidence of remediation. It made a striking-off order and imposed an 18-month interim suspension order to cover the appeal period.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Aggravating factors
Devoid of any meaningful reflection or significant insight on the impact of her unprofessional conduct on patients in her care; abuse of a position of trust; conduct which deliberately or recklessly put people receiving care at risk of suffering harm and caused actual harm; a pattern of misconduct over a period of time; vulnerability of persons receiving care; failure to work collaboratively with colleagues.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Nursing and Midwifery Council determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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