It was very ill advised for medical staff at Southampton General to organise a PR defence in the media today of their absolutely disgraceful performance over the Ashya King case, when they showed a serious lack of judgement and understanding, and turned the child’s parents into international criminals on the run, when all they wanted was to seek alternative treatment for their child.
Southampton General, whatever its positive qualities, is possessed of an unacceptable level of professional arrogance in its paediatric department and a lack of interpersonal skills when dealing with parents who question their judgement. I know. I was forced to agree to a new treatment regime for my daughter against her and her parents wishes and threatened with a police protection order if we did not concede to their demands. We did. The hospital proceeded with its plan. It proved fatal.
This hospital’s decision to re-open this whole sorry episode following the successful treatment of Ashya overseas, will cause this family further trauma and betrays the same lack of judgement as was demonstrated during the incident itself.