A NURSE left seriously ill babies wearing wet clothes, soiled nappies and covered in vomit, a hearing was told.

Philippa Ralph is also accused of inserting a feeding tube into an infant’s stomach when it was already full and of letting another baby go blue through lack of oxygen.

The neglect is said to have happened at the neonatal intensive care unit at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Newly-qualified Ralph, who is in her mid 20s, admitted administering a baby’s medicine nine hours late on one occasion and of mistakenly informing staff that another was being given 1 litre rather than 0.1 litres of oxygen.

But she appeared at the Nursing and Midwifery Council to deny all the other allegations which relate to five babies in her care.

Neil Moloney, for the NMC, told the panel that colleagues had raised concerns about Ralph’s practice shortly after she started work at the unit on February 18, 2008. She was sacked in the following July.

The mother of a child referred to as Baby A, said she had seen Ralph try to attach a feeding tube to her daughter’s stomach.

She said: “We had just fed her a bottle of milk.

“From our experience of being at the hospital, we knew you could not put another tube in straight away because the baby’s stomach was full. But she did try to put the tube in again.

“The baby was sick and we were left to deal with the after effects of that.”

Giving evidence, colleague Lokching Leung, a senior nurse in the intensive care section of the unit, said Ralph had asked her in passing whether she should use a tube if a baby did not manage a bottle, to which she said she had replied yes.

But she said it was unclear at the time whether Ralph was referring to Baby A specifically, or that the infant had taken any milk via a bottle first.

Paul Rooney, representing Ralph, asked the witness why she had not tried to glean more information before responding to the nurse’s question.

He said Baby A’s records showed the alleged incident took place on March 3, 2008, by which point Ralph had only worked six shifts.

“As a very senior superising nurse, with a brand new supernumerary nurse, did you not think it would be wise to get some further details?’ he added.

Mrs Leung said ‘in hindsight’ she should have done, adding she had been very busy during that particular shift.

Mr Rooney continued: ‘If the baby had a nasogastric tube and had been bottled fed and then pulled the tube out of its nose, would you have advised this nurse to have reinserted the tube?’

Mrs Leung replied: ‘If she had said that, I would have asked her how much milk the baby had had, but none of this information was given to me.’

Ralph faces six other allegations relating to her employment at the unit, which looks after seriously ill children including failing to change babies’ nappies, sheets or soiled clothing within a reasonable time.

The hearing continues.