Malpractice season 2 ending explained: What did the MIU find?

The new run stars Tom Hughes as Dr James Ford, who is the subject of the Medical Investigation Unit's (MIU's) latest enquiry, while Selin Hizli plays an obstetrician with whom he butts heads, Dr Sophia Hernandez.

But for those viewers who have already made it right the way through to the end of the fifth episode, what did the MIU uncover, and what happened to James and Sophia?

Read on for everything you need to know about the ending of Malpractice season 2

Malpractice season 2 ending explained: What did the MIU find?

Through their investigation, and the input of Sophia and James, now surprisingly working together, the MIU found that the fault in many of the cases they had been looking into actually lay with the senior members of the trust - led by Eric Sawers.

They found that the trust had previously on the brink of bankruptcy and the maternity unit rated as inadequate, due to multiple complications with births.

Eric Sawers and Arun Mansoor were appointed and turned the unit around. However, they were actually presiding over a culture of fear, bullying and cover-ups, where it was made impossible to log serious incidents. This meant the trust was reporting much lower serious incidence figures to the government.

They would also pay families off for any complaints, giving them a lower amount than they would get if they had gone to court, and dangerously lowered cesarian rates to far below the national average to save money.

The kicker came when George happened upon plans being drawn up by an architecture firm for which his girlfriend, Gina, worked. The plans were for a redesign of the psychiatry unit, with a client putting together a bid to purchase the unit and redevelop it into luxury flats.

The trust had received over £6 million to repair and rejuvenate the psychiatric unit, both in government grants and charitable donations, but renovations had never been carried out and the money was never invested.

Instead, the money was spent on the maternity unit, so the psychiatry unit would get more and more run down, and therefore be easier to close down and sell.

The sale was valued at £32 million and had been approved by the trust. In the meantime, they used investigations into staff, like James, in a hope that the MIU would deem the department in need of closure.

What the rest of the trust didn't know was that Eric planned to profit from the sale and redevelopment personally. The architecture firm putting in the bid was owned by his sister-in-law, and they believed they could make upwards of £60 million from the redevelopment.

This money would be funnelled into a parent company of the firm, which was owned by Eric and his brother.

Norma and George noted that the trust would be tied up in legal action for years to come following their findings, and Eric was arrested.

What happened to Maria?

Maria Carter was the midwife for Rosie's birth, who had flagged up her concerns about her traumatic birth and her pathological fear of infection, but been shut down by Sophia, who had her own orders from Arun.

In the fourth episode of the season, James went to Maria's house and found her dead from an apparent suicide via overdose. James, however, believed she had been "silenced" by the trust.

He later found that she had been contacting women who had had traumatic births at the hospital, and had their experiences minimised in the notes which blamed them for the complications. She planned to support them in taking legal action against the hospital.

It was never proven exactly whether Maria's overdose was accidental, a suicide or a murder, but it's clear that, whatever the case, the actions of the trust played their part in her death.

What happened to James, Kate and Sophia?

James appealed in his hearing to say that he would have made different judgements in Rosie's case had he been given all the data, but admitted his subsequent behaviour with regards to Felicity Templeton, a woman who had taken drugs while on a night out with him, had been erratic and irresponsible.

He argued this was due to the stress of the investigation, and asked the panel to take it into account.

It was determined that he had failed to keep Rosie safe, and that Felicity's case in particular proved that his fitness to practice was impaired. However, he was not struck off.

Instead, he was suspended for 12 months, meaning he would be able to return to his role, dependent upon a review at the end of the period.

Meanwhile, Kate, with whom he had secretly been having a relationship, had previously been offered a new job by Eric but he backtracked on this, saying her relationship with James was beyond the pale.

Eric had used the offer of the job as a bribe to get her to do his bidding, including getting James assessed for sectioning. He then reported her relationship with James to the MIU, and at the end of the season she was subject to her own hearing.

We didn't find out the response to this, but it was clear that any relationship she had with James was well and truly over.

Meanwhile, Sophia, whose whistleblower testimony helped to solidify the MIU's case against Eric and the trust, was struck off after she implicated herself in malpractice. She had to leave the hospital and her role as a doctor, but knew this would be the outcome when she came forward. She felt that the trust had to be held to account, and was willing to sacrifice her career.

Malpractice season 2 will debut on ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday 4th May, airing at 9pm, while season 1 is available in full on ITVX now.

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