Every extra day spent in the womb improves the baby’s chances of survival.”The first baby, Edward, weighed 1lb 12oz (795g) when he was born but has steadily gained strength in an incubator and now weighs 1lb 14oz.Dr Hughes said the second baby faced the normal risks of prematurity as well as further danger from infection caused by the first birth. If infection did spread, she said the team would induce the birth, but otherwise would wait until early July to give the baby more time to develop. A hospital spokeswoman added: “The second baby is being monitored very closely and if it was deemed appropriate then the birth would be induced.”Ms Beveridge, 25, from Livingston in West Lothian, who already has two daughters, said she was still looking forward to having twins She said: “Nobody can understand it. The doctors said they didn’t know of anyone holding on to a second baby for more than three days I can’t believe I’m still hanging on – it’s really unusual Sometimes I don’t even feel pregnant. It’s really bizarre, having given birth to one baby, to still be waiting eagerly for the second more than a fortnight later.”Margaret McGuire, of the Royal College of Midwives, said the twins were unlikely to be identical.

She said: “Non-identical twins are the ones that run in families, and are caused by two sperm fertilising two eggs, which develop in separate sacs. They are separate babies who just happen to be sharing the same womb. “Mrs Rhian Ferguson, the co-ordinator of the Edinburgh Twins Club, said: “We have 75 members but only one mum who has twins with different birthdays, and that’s only because they were born before and after midnight.”. A flamboyant character in a bow-tie, jacket and pinstripe trousers with a liking for fast cars, Rodney Ledward was a consultant with a “god-like” attitude to his patients. A flamboyant character in a bow-tie, jacket and pinstripe trousers with a liking for fast cars, Rodney Ledward was a consultant with a “god-like” attitude to his patients.
Described by one of his former patients as “very dashing, quite the Woman’s Weekly hero”, he sometimes turned up at patients’ bedsides dressed in riding gear, carrying a whip and smelling of drink.The consultant gynaecologist at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, believed that he was the consummate surgeon, but yesterday he was condemned in an inquiry’s report not only for his arrogant attitude but for his surgical incompetence.The year-long inquiry chaired by Jean Ritchie QC was set up last year after Mr Ledward, 62, was struck off the medical register in 1998 for serious professional misconduct relating to 13 operations. It was told that the consultant – who styled himself as the “fastest gynaecologist in the South-east” after performing seven hysterectomies in a morning – put pressure on women to become private patients, took cash before operations took place, and had poor attendance at clinics and on call.The inquiry concluded: “Despite the number of patients who suffered damage during his surgery or suffered complications afterwards, it never seems to have crossed his mind that there was anything amiss with his technique.”Despite complaints from patients, challenges from some of the nursing staff to his practice, management investigations, a disciplinary hearing and a formal warning, nothing seems to have made him stop and think that possibly it was his fault.

He appears to have been supremely confident.”Doctors’ leaders insisted yesterday that the attitudes exhibited by Mr Ledward were no longer part of the National Health Service. Dr Ian Bogle, chairman of the British Medical Association, said doctors were now much more prepared to blow the whistle on incompetent colleagues, and spoke out more readily if managers failed to act.The inquiry recommends that to counter the “climate of fear and intimidation” in hospitals, confidential hotlines should be set up in every NHS trust to allow concerns to be registered about an employee, and the health service should support people who speak out.But Dr Bogle said the climate it referred to no longer existed. “The report refers to a culture in the NHS I no longer recognise Doctors are now… required to speak out by General Medical Council guidelines, or face disciplinary action,” he said.The report criticises the GMC for being a self-regulating body and recommends that its disciplinary procedures are made more efficient so cases against doctors can be heard more quickly and effectively.It says a civil, rather than criminal, standard of proof should be required to strike a doctor off the medical register.

It also recommends that a circuit judge or an experienced recorder of the Crown Court sits as chairman on the panel to ensure proceedings are fair and independent.Doctors struck off the medical register are often reinstated within a year. But the inquiry report recommends a similar standard of proof is required to allow them back on.Finlay Scott, chief executive of the GMC, said the council would incorporate recommendations of the Ritchie report into procedures. “The GMC struck Rodney Ledward off but only after local health systems failed over 16 years to prevent patients being harmed,” he said. “We must work together to ensure lessons are learnt and steps are taken to prevent a repeat of this case.”The report calls for a national system of data collection so benchmarks can be established for a range of medical and surgical specialties against which doctors can be assessed. Every NHS trust should have access to the data.Ms Ritchie said that doctors in general practice who referred patients to a surgeon should have access to his performance records so they could inform their patients.

Occupational health assessment of the physical and mental state of doctors was also recommended each time they moved job.The report recommends there should be only one ombudsman for health matters to deal with complaints from private and NHS patients.It made its recommendations after giving the details of one woman who died following childbirth after Mr Ledward failed to note the seriousness of her condition and then left junior doctors to manage her complex case after performing a Caesarean operation. When her husband asked Mr Ledward for an explanation, he said: “These things happen.”Another patient, Ann Dowling, 60, of Dover, Kent, was left with a hole in her bladder and incontinent after Mr Ledward left junior doctors to perform her hysterectomy at the William Harvey Hospital in 1984. She said: “Ledward used to sweep through the ward like a god. It was as if he was saying ‘Who are you to ask me questions?’ “The inquiry was told Mr Ledward appeared to have a “split reputation” among colleagues with some expressing serious concern about his competence while others said that they had never been given cause for concern. Some consultants were so concerned that they stopped referring their patients to him.One of his private patients who underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy in 1986 was told a low incision would be made, but was left with an abscess which had developed on a large wound and unsightly scar.