Health secretary accepts recommendations of report on William Mead, who died despite visits to GP and call to helpline
Jeremy Hunt has accepted the recommendations of a damning NHS report which found that doctors and the NHS helpline missed four opportunities to save the life of a one-year-old boy. The health secretary offered a public apology to the family of William Mead, who died in September 2014 of the common sepsis bug, which went undetected despite repeated visits to the GP and a call to the NHS 111 helpline hours before his death. He promised that lessons would be learned from Tuesday’s report. Labour accused the government of ignoring warnings about poor sepsis care a year before William died.
Speaking in the Commons, Hunt said: “Whilst any health system will inevitably suffer some tragedies, the issues raised in this case have significant implications for the rest of the NHS which I’m determined we should learn from.”
Hunt said he had met William’s mother, Melissa, to offer his personal apologies. “Quite simply, we let her, her family and William down in the worst possible way through serious failings in the NHS care offered and I would like to apologise to them on behalf of the government and the NHS.”
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Filed under: NHS Blunders, Jeremy Hunt, NHS 111, public apology
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