Proof Britain has finally lost its marbles

The toddler in Colin Baillie’s consulting room at the Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire had blonde hair and a bubbly personality. 

Jessica Martin was, in the words of paediatric surgeon Mr Baillie, a ‘lovely young lady’.

He said so in a follow-up letter to her parents; it was a nice touch which typified Mr Baillie’s warm ‘bedside manner’, a quality not all consultants possess.

Jessica’s condition, it should be stressed, was not critical, nor were her symptoms causing her discomfort. Nevertheless, her GP took the precaution of referring her to Mr Baillie.

Mr Baillie is actually based at the renowned Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, but holds regular clinics at the Royal Preston; he has more than 30 years of experience and is widely respected in his field. This is evident from the messages of thanks left on Alder Hey’s own website.

One glowing testimonial is from the parents of a little girl who was born with a heart condition and had to undergo a series of operations at Alder Hey last year. The doctor they singled out was Mr Baillie.

Jo Martin, pictured here with her husband Billy, daughter Jessica and sons George and Sam (centre) took offence to the word and said the word ‘manfully’ was ‘so sexist’

Freelance typist Mrs Martin had been too ill to attend the consultation at a hospital in Preston so her husband went along instead

‘You saved my daughter’s life,’ they wrote. ‘Thank you … you will never know the gratitude we have for you.’

Nor is it an isolated tribute. ‘Mr Colin Baillie is fantastic surgeon and I can never thank him enough for saving my beautiful daughter,’ were the heartfelt words of another grateful mum.

So Jessica, aged three — who lives in Chorley, Lancashire, with her mum and dad, Jo and Billy Martin, and her two brothers — could not have been in safer hands.

Mrs Martin, 33, a freelance typist, was unable to attend the consultation about her daughter with Mr Baillie on October 20, because she was ill. Jessica was accompanied instead by web designer Mr Martin. The examination went well. And Jessica’s family were assured there was nothing to be unduly concerned about.

Why are we telling you about Jessica Martin’s routine appointment at the Royal Preston? 

Because of what happened next: an almost farcical chain of events which, for many people, epitomises the kind of world we now live in, where all too often offence is sought, where none really exists, and common sense has all but disappeared.

This is the letter that caused a top surgeon to be accused of sexism and a hospital trust to issue a grovelling apology 

Mr Baillie’s letter was headed ‘NEW APPOINTMENT’ and in it he described three-year-old Jessica as a ‘lovely young lady’

The letter went on: ‘Unfortunately, her [Jessica’s] mum could not be at the clinic … as she has not been well and father stepped in manfully’

Exactly how such a dedicated doctor like Mr Baillie became the victim of what can only be described as politically correct fanaticism is the cruel irony at the heart of this story and will be revealed in due course.

But the very fact he became a ‘story’ in the first place, culminating in the health trust that runs the Royal Preston apologising on Mr Baillie’s behalf, is an indictment in itself.

So, back to the events in question.

Some weeks after Jessica’s appointment, the family’s GP received a standard letter from Mr Baillie informing him that he would need to see Jessica again in three months’ time. A copy also landed on the doormat of the Martins’ terrace house.

The correspondence from Mr Baillie, under the utterly uncontroversial heading NEW APPOINTMENT, consisted of just three paragraphs in which, as already stated, he described Jessica as a ‘lovely young lady’. Yet, by the time Mrs Martin had put the letter down, she was practically shaking with indignation, judging by her comments last week.

‘I could not believe it when I read it,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what the consultant was thinking.’ What had Mr Baillie done to elicit such a reaction? What heinous crime had he committed? What terrible insult had he hurled at Mrs Martin to make her feel this way?

The answer, it emerged, was in the second sentence. It read: ‘Unfortunately, her [Jessica’s] mum could not be at the clinic … as she has not been well and father stepped in manfully.’

Confused? You certainly wouldn’t be alone.

In fact, it was Mr Baillie’s use of the last word — manfully — that left Mrs Martin in a state of shock. ‘I read it out loud,’ she added, ‘and I was like: “What? Surely I read that wrong.” I thought: “They can’t have put that.”

Mrs Martin was left in a state of shock after reading the letter

Now, to the vast majority of us, ‘manfully’ is a perfectly inoffensive, everyday adverb. According to the Oxford dictionary, it simply means ‘brave and resolute.’

Here it was clearly applied — or intended — in a fairly light-hearted way.

Mrs Martin, who has started her own parenting blog chronicling the daily challenges of bringing up three young children, saw things rather differently. 

‘“Manfully”’ was loaded with sexist connotations,’ she claimed. ‘So sexist’ was the phrase she actually used. She could not imagine, she said, Mr Baillie using ‘womanfully’ in the same context.

‘The consultant,’ she added, ‘did not know that I was the one who was supposed to be taking her. 

‘As far as he should be concerned, fathers and mothers should have equal responsibility for taking their children to hospital. 

‘I couldn’t take her because I was ill and was already distressed about not being there. It made me feel guilty because I could not attend and it was like they were pointing it out.’ 

Distressed. Guilty. Sexist. Strong words. 

All because of one harmless word Colin Baillie used to humanise a bland letter in which, remember, he also referred to her daughter as ‘this lovely young lady’. How many other paediatricians would have bothered to say that about one of their patients?

Even if a semantic — some might say, pedantic — justification could be found for Mrs Martin’s argument, it should have been perfectly obvious to anyone that Mr Baillie meant no offence.

Mrs Martin is a devoted mother, of that there is no doubt, which is apparent from her blog. ‘Married to Billy, mum to Sam, Jess and George,’ it begins. She says she is usually to be found ‘under a mammoth pile of ironing … we have a dog named Toby and a hamster named Nibbles’.

The family, including Mrs Martin, are popular with their neighbours. But wouldn’t most women, even the most strident of feminists, have overlooked Mr Baillie’s use of ‘manfully’, if indeed there was anything to overlook?

Instead, Mrs Martin made her feelings very public on her own Facebook page, with an extract of the ‘incriminating’ sentence, around midday on November 12.

‘This sentence,’ she wrote, ‘was in a letter we received yesterday from Jessica’s hospital consultant! “Father stepped in manfully”! Surely father brought her to the hospital because he was her dad?! Wth!! [‘what the hell/heck’].

Mrs Martin agreed to be interviewed by a press agency in Liverpool. Their story ended up splashed across newspapers and websites around the country

At 7.20 pm on the same day, Mrs Martin shared the same concerns on Unmumsy Mum, a popular parenting site on Facebook.

The initial reaction on Facebook was supportive. ‘Wow,’ wrote one woman. ‘Jeez’, wrote another. ‘Seriously?’ was the response of a third, who read Jo Martin’s ‘manfully’ post.

The post was also spotted by a local press agency in Liverpool. Jo and Billy Martin agreed to be interviewed and photographed along with Jessica. The next day (November 15) the story was splashed across newspapers and websites.

‘Hospital accused of sexism after praising father for “manfully” bringing daughter for treatment,’ read one headline.

Underneath was a picture of the family holding Colin Baillie’s ‘offensive’ letter aloft for the camera.

What went unreported was the fact that Mrs Martin was even considering making an official complaint about Mr Baillie to the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Royal Preston Hospital. 

‘I have not decided whether to or not,’ she told the journalist from the press agency.

The Trust, it transpired, did not receive a complaint. But — and this is crucial when it comes to analysing the kind of world we are now living in — it apologised anyway. 

The apology was given added weight because it came from Chief Executive Karen Partington.

Since the story broke, the Martins have been on the receiving end of a backlash online, with one person saying: ‘Stop taking offence at imagined slights’

The wording of the apology, which the trust said was also on behalf of Mr Baillie, read: ‘We apologise if any offence was taken, that was not the intention. Our priority is to provide excellent care with compassion for our patients and make them feel as comfortable as possible while they are being treated.’

Isn’t that precisely what Colin Baillie did?

‘He didn’t know anything about the story until his mother showed him the coverage the next day,’ said Mr Baillie’s wife Christine when we called at her home on the Wirral.

The Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said that it did try to get in touch with Mr Baillie and left a message for him to contact them. Clearly, he couldn’t have got it.

Nevertheless, it is perhaps typical of Mr Baillie that, according to his wife, he has no complaints about the apology either way.

By now, the initial positive support for Mrs Martin on social media had died down and instead turned into an angry backlash.

There is no excuse for the abusive comments which were then directed at her. But many others, it has to be said, went to the heart of the matter. ‘Too many people are enjoying taking offence over the smallest thing,’ read one.

‘Too easy to complain about nonsense these days,’ read another. ‘We really have lost all sense of perspective’ . . . ‘Stop taking offence at imagined slights’…

‘Should be writing to thank the surgeon.’ On they went.

All pointed to the uncomfortable truth that there is more than a hint of McCarthyism around the culture of political correctness that holds sway today.

Despite not receiving an official complaint, the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust issued an apology over the incident

But surely there could not be a more unlikely, or less deserving, victim of the new orthodoxy than Mr Baillie, a man with an unblemished career who is widely respected both inside, and outside Alder Hey and the Royal Preston hospital.

Mr Baillie, who is in his 50s and himself the father of three children, was among a group of doctors who swam across the English Channel to raise money for charity back in 2008. 

He is also an active member of his local church in the village of Upton, a few miles from Birkenhead, where he sings in the choir and where he wrote about his work in the parish newsletter.

‘I suppose if someone was to ask me what I do, I would reply that I am first and foremost a paediatrician and lastly a surgeon — totally dependent on the skills of those around me (nurses, radiologists, anaesthetists, and other hospital staff) to practise,’ he said. 

‘Working at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is a team effort, and a genuinely humbling experience.’

Doesn’t this say everything about Colin Baillie — both the man and the doctor?

As does the way he has handled the recent controversy.

‘He doesn’t blame the parents,’ said Mrs Baillie. ‘He doesn’t think they understood what would happen [once they voiced their views] and he has no problem with them. His main concern now is for their welfare. 

‘He is upset about the treatment the mother, in particular, has received on social media. It has been blown totally out of proportion.’

Maybe so. Some might say, though, that Colin Baillie has behaved rather ‘manfully’ in the circumstances.