Bereaved parents to meet health secretary

Katie Fowler wrote to Wes Streeting to outline the families' concerns

A mother whose baby died 48 hours after birth is to meet the health secretary as she continues to call for a public inquiry into deaths at a Sussex hospital trust.

Katie Fowler and her husband Rob Miller wrote to Wes Streeting to outline the concerns of nine families who lost babies at hospitals run by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

She said she was unhappy with an email response from the health secretary's office and had now been offered a meeting.

Streeting previously said maternity care was "one of the biggest issues" that kept him "awake at night".

Ms Fowler told BBC South East: "My daughter should be nearly three years old, she is missing from our lives every day."

Abigail Fowler Miller died at Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital in January 2022 after an emergency C-section.

An inquest found her life would have been prolonged if her mother had been admitted to hospital sooner.

Ms Fowler said she had been offered a meeting with the health secretary in November

Ms Fowler, from Hove, said she had been offered a meeting with Streeting in November.

She said she hoped the health secretary recognised he needed to speak to bereaved families to understand how to fix poor maternity care.

"I think it's really important that he does engage with bereaved parents so I'm glad that we've been given the opportunity and I hope it proves to be valuable to us," she added.

Dr Maggie Davies, chief nurse at the trust, said it offered its "deepest condolences and sincere apologies" to the families and that dedicated teams were committed to "listening, learning and improving the service".