A grieving mother whose baby died due to NHS errors has criticized health secretary Wes Streeting for his “insulting” cut-and-paste response to her request to meet him.
Katie Fowler’s daughter Abigail was one of nine newborns who were victims of care failures at Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust between 2021 and 2023.
Before the election, Streeting said shortcomings in the maternity service caused her “anxiety… in the pit of my stomach” and promised to listen to the concerns of grieving parents.
But when Ms Fowler and her husband Rob Miller wrote to him in August asking him to meet the bereaved Sussex families, she received little attention.
The “flippant and insensitive” response, which was not even signed by Streeting, did not acknowledge the concerns raised by the couple, he added.
Robert Miller and Katie Fowler with their daughter Abigail Fowler Miller, who died two days after birth at the Royal Sussex County Hospital (RSCH) in Brighton in January 2022. An inquest concluded she would probably have survived if her mother had received medical treatment. before
Before the election, Wes Streeting pledged to meet with grieving parents to listen to their concerns.
Abigail was one of nine babies who died between 2021 and 2023 as a result of failures at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.
Instead, it included irrelevant information, most of which had been copied and pasted from previous DHSC statements in the media.
In one section, the letter inappropriately reassured Mrs Fowler – whose daughter died two days old due to avoidable harm suffered during her birth – that baby loss certificates were now available for miscarriages.
The words used were copied from a press release issued in February, under the previous health secretary, Victoria Atkins.
Furious, Mrs Fowler said: ‘Mr Streeting’s comments about maternity services made me believe he realizes how urgent this is.
“So I was incredibly disappointed to receive such a flippant and impersonal response and it made me wonder what the Government’s plans to fix maternity services really are.”
She added: “We have heard a lot but babies and mothers will continue to die and suffer serious harm due to errors and poor standards in maternity care unless we take immediate action.” This must be treated as a priority now.”
The letter also told the grieving mother, who nearly died during childbirth and ended up in a coma in intensive care, that “childbirth should not be something women fear or remember with trauma.”
These words were first published in a press statement by Wes Streeting last month, when he described as a “cause of national shame” a report showing that preventable harm was at risk of being “normalized” in maternity units at the NHS.
The letter also reused part of a statement read by Health Minister Karin Symth in response to a question about the shortage of neonatal nurses in the House of Commons in August.
And he praised the couple’s work for a charity unrelated to them.
Abigail Fowler Miller died in January 2022, two days after being born via an emergency Caesarean section performed in a hallway at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. Her mother, Katie Fowler, had suffered a cardiac arrest in a taxi on the way to hospital, after midwives relying on telephone assessments missed warning signs that she had massive internal bleeding during childbirth.
An investigation concluded that Abigail likely would have survived if her mother had received medical attention sooner.
Her parents have joined other grieving families in calling for a national inquiry into maternity services, as well as an independent inquiry into Sussex University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Nisha Sharma, senior solicitor at Slater and Gordon who represents the couple and many other families affected by maternity failures, said families were still waiting for Streeting to start addressing the issue.
‘Families whose babies have died as a result of maternity failures are asking the Health Secretary for help, but they are getting nothing.
“We trust Mr. Streeting and his department to take action, and it really can’t wait any longer,” he said, urging him to meet directly with the families “so we can look them in the eye and see their pain.” .
In an earlier statement, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust said it had made positive changes to improve maternity services, including recruiting more midwives, improving triage processes and changing the way it supports families.
After the Mail contacted the DHSC for comment, a representative contacted Ms Fowler and Mr Miller to discuss arranging a future meeting with Mr Streeting.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Our sincere sympathies are with Katie Fowler and Robert Miller. We apologize unreservedly for our response which does not reflect the enormity of Katie and Robert’s loss.
“Motherhood remains a priority for this Government and the department has been in touch to arrange a meeting with the Secretary of State.”
