A LUDLOW couple who lost their baby in tragic circumstances six years ago have won an apology and their battle to get a fresh investigation into maternity care at Ludlow Hospital.

Rhiannon Davies gave birth to a daughter Kate in March 2009 in the maternity unit at the hospital, but the baby soon became ill, despite being born at full term.

She was flown by air ambulance to hospital in Birmingham but died later that day.

Ms Davies and her partner Richard Stanton, who this week met Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to discuss the case, also discovered that Kate’s ashes may have been disposed of as ‘fly ash’ following the controversy at Emstrey Crematorium in Shrewsbury. They have always maintained the death of their baby was linked to care at the town’s hospital, and said this was supported by findings at an inquest.

Health chiefs contested the findings of the inquest but a major review of maternity services in south Shropshire was launched in 2013, and a report published. The couple described this as a “PR exercise” and took their case to the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman who has backed them.

Now the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust has apologised to Ms Davies and Richard Stanton and launched a new investigation.

The trust has admitted there were failures both in the level of care given to baby Kate and in the way that the couple’s complaint was handled.

“We recognise that some areas of our care for Ms Davies and her daughter in 2009 failed to meet the high standards we set for every one of our patients,” said Sarah Bloomfield, director of nursing and quality care at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust.

“Furthermore, we recognise that we also fell short in the trust’s complaint handling process and we are truly sorry for the added pain and distress this has caused.

“We have acknowledged and unreservedly apologised for these shortcomings and it is crucial that we ensure we learn from them.

“This applies both to the standards and safety of maternity care and to the way we handle complaints and concerns.”

She added: "It is for those reasons we are commissioning an independent review into the care and treatment provided to Ms Davies and her daughter and the trust’s subsequent subsequent handling of the couple’s concerns.”

Rhiannon Davies said that Mr Hunt had invited them to visit him after hearing of the report of the Ombudsman.

“We have done this to try to make sure that other families do not have to go through the same experience in the future,” she said.

“It has been a struggle but is something that we had to do for Kate. They just hope that people will give up but we could not do this.”

The couple met the secretary of state and left with him a set of proposals to consider that they hope will prevent similar failures in the future.

Ludlow MP Philip Dunne was at the meeting with Jeremy Hunt and Mr Stanton and Ms Davies.