Midwife sues North Bristol NHS Trust, says TikTok posts and bullying forced her from post
Senior midwife alleges colleagues and managers targeted her after she raised concerns about maternity services; employment tribunal to begin in Bristol
A senior midwife who says she was driven from her job after posting about maternity services on TikTok has launched an employment tribunal claim against North Bristol NHS Trust for unfair constructive dismissal. The tribunal is due to begin in Bristol on Monday.
Lara Basini-Millar, 45, a midwife of 21 years who worked at Southmead Hospital, says she attracted criticism and formal complaints from colleagues after she began using a social media account, midwifemillar, to discuss maternity care and to provide advice and support to pregnant women. She has said she built a large following and used the channel to encourage and inform women, but that this led to a campaign of bullying that left her unable to continue in post.
Basini-Millar alleges that colleagues created a WhatsApp group to criticise her videos and that managers told her some posts were "unprofessional, sexual in nature" and undermined the reputation of the trust, even though she did not identify her workplace in the content. She says she was criticised for clothing she bought and wore in the videos and was told she was "impersonating" a midwife at the trust, even though she was not wearing the trust uniform. She has described being asked to hand in those garments to the trust.
According to Basini-Millar, she began posting on the account at about age 40 during a period of personal upheaval and initially focused on pregnancy advice; some posts, she says, included candid discussion of sex during pregnancy and footage of her dancing while offering practical tips. She says complaints about the content led to escalating scrutiny and, by late 2022, she gave notice because she "couldn't cope with constant bullying." She says she was then recruited by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital to help develop their social media but that in March 2023 she was told she had made a serious clinical error and that her future shifts were cancelled.
The North Bristol NHS Trust referred Basini-Millar to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which opened an urgent fitness-to-practise review. Basini-Millar says the NMC later found no immediate concerns, closed its investigation and wrote to her that there was "no case to answer." An internal investigation by Southmead Hospital also concluded there was no evidence to support a central allegation that she had coerced a woman away from a consultant-recommended Caesarean section.
Basini-Millar says the trust offered a £9,500 settlement to resolve matters before the hearing, which she declined. She said the forthcoming five-day tribunal is not about money, but about clearing her name and exposing what she has described as a culture that did not respond adequately to concerns about patient outcomes.
In a brief statement, North Bristol NHS Trust said that because the allegations are the subject of an employment tribunal, "it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage." The trust added that its staff are "deeply valued" and that it takes any concerns raised with the utmost seriousness.
Basini-Millar has said she is considering leaving the NMC register altogether because of the impact of the proceedings on her career. She has a substantial social media following and has said she intends to continue using her account to provide advice and support to pregnant women.
The case highlights tensions that can arise when health professionals use public social media platforms to discuss workplace practices and patient care. Professional regulators such as the NMC can be asked to investigate referrals from employers and others when concerns are raised about practice or conduct; employers may also launch internal inquiries or take disciplinary steps where they consider patient safety or professional standards to be at risk. In this case, both the regulator and the trust's internal review found no evidence to support the principal clinical allegation, while the claimant says she was effectively forced to resign because of sustained workplace pressure and reputational damage.
The employment tribunal will determine whether Basini-Millar was constructively dismissed and whether the actions of colleagues and managers amounted to unlawful bullying or discrimination. Further details of the hearing and its outcome are expected to be reported after the tribunal concludes.