Grieving parents in limbo awaiting probes into babies’ deaths

Grieving parents who have lost their children at Queensland’s embattled maternity wards say they have spent months begging for external reviews.

Rebecca and Tim Spreadborough lost their son Alby at Emerald Hospital.

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Grieving parents who have lost their children at Queensland’s embattled maternity wards have slammed the health service’s review system, saying they have spent months begging for external reviews into the deaths of their newborns.

Rebecca Spreadborough and Meg Flaskett both lost their children Alby and Thea under tragic circumstances last year.

The mothers have had to repeatedly request external reviews, with Health Minister Shannon Fentiman engaged to provide updates and assist with the progression of their cases.

While both mothers were offered internal reviews, they were dissatisfied with the findings and requested independent external reviews.

Ms Spreadborough has been waiting eight months for her review, after being promised one by Minister Fentiman last July.

She’s now demanding answers as to why the onus is placed on heartbroken parents to ensure hospitals are providing external reviews into maternity care and neonatal deaths.

An example of text messages exchanged between Health Minister Shannon Fentiman's office and Rebecca Spreadborough

“Legal proceedings or not, you have a responsibility to investigate the death of neonatal and maternal injuries,” she said.

Ms Spreadborough and husband Tim lost their son Alby in February 2023 at Emerald Hospital, they allege, after the hospital missed clear signs of obstructed labour.

An initial internal clinical review was undertaken by Central Queensland Hospital Health Service, however the recommendations made no mention of obstructed labour, and Ms Spreadborough escalated her case to the Health Ombudsman in hopes of getting a comprehensive external review.

They met with the then newly appointed Health Minister Shannon Fentiman in July, but were made to wait until December before an external review into baby Alby’s death was confirmed.

It took another three months for CQHHS to appoint panel members, with three health experts finally secured last week.

Rebecca Spreadborough with a picture of son Alby

“And only because I put pressure on them to keep looking,” Ms Spreadborough said.

“This is what we should have been afforded in the first place after his death.

“Why has it been up to me to follow everything up?”

Text messages between Ms Spreadborough and Ms Fentiman’s office seen by the Courier-Mail show staff members repeatedly apologising for the delays and times where advocacy fell to her.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said several factors contributed to the delays, including a change of chief executives at CQHHS and securing appropriately qualified clinicians to conduct the review.

Following conversations with Ms Spreadborough last month, a representative of the Health Minister’s office suggested the CQHHS consider other options.

Weeks later a panel was finalised.

An example of text messages exchanged between Health Minister Shannon Fentiman's office and Rebecca Spreadborough

“I understand that Rebecca has been closely consulted throughout this process to ensure she is comfortable with the clinicians chosen to form this review panel,” Ms Fentiman said.

Ms Fentiman said she was not aware of any review backlog, with most reviews taking between three and six months.

CQHHS acting chief executive Ngaire Buchanan confirmed finding experienced doctors to sit on the panel had been challenging but the external review would commence shortly.

“Multiple clinicians were engaged to participate in the review but were unavailable due to competing priorities,” she said, while also confirming the panel comprised a neonatologist, obstetrician and clinical midwife.

Ms Buchanan said the external clinical review would provide recommendations to improve the quality and safety of hospital services.

Meanwhile, Meg and James Flaskett have been waiting nearly six months for an external review into their newborn daughter’s death.

Their daughter Thea died at Redcliffe Hospital in September, which they allege was due to a faulty or empty oxygen tank.

Metro North HHS has denied the claims.

Meg and James Flaskett lost newborn daughter Thea.

Ms Flaskett said she too had to fight hard for Metro North HHS to review her case, and they have now been waiting six months for an external review.

“We got an internal investigation after Thea’s death after my mum made a complaint on my behalf,” she said.

“That concluded December, we then met with Minister Fentiman in November who helped commission a root-cause analysis which was completed last week.”

But when Ms Flaskett was granted an external review in December, she found the majority of panellists appointed to investigate her case were employed with Metro North HHS, again delaying the investigation.

Ms Flaskett is due to meet with Ms Fentiman in two weeks.

She has also submitted a complaint to the Health Ombudsman, but says that investigation could take up to 12 months depending on the coroner.

“It’s really difficult to get anywhere, I can totally see why parents give up and feel deflated,” she said.

“You feel like you’re fighting so hard for the bare minimum.

“I haven’t had a moment to sit back and grieve my loss. As her parents we deserve to know.”

Maternity Consumer Network founder Alecia Staines said the process for women seeking reviews into their treatment was difficult and traumatic. She said patients were always initially referred to the Ombudsman and asked to negotiate with the same hospital they are trying to seek a review of, rather than given the option of an external process.

“What would make it easy is if the Ombudsman had teeth,” she said.

“The Ombudsman sends the case back to the hospital for them to investigate themselves but how do you fix poor clinical practice when they investigate themselves?”

Ms Staines said external reviews could be virtually non-existent if the Ombudsman process was fixed to serve patients.

“These reviews should be external at the Ombudsman level,” she said.

“That protects the family and takes the onus off the woman to keep following up.”