A GRIEVING mother was shocked when a hospital asked to see her baby son as an outpatient - three-and-a-half months after he died.

The letter arrived this week at the home of Natalie Parker requesting her consent for specialists to carry out tests on her young son Jack.

But Jack, who was born with a number of serious medical conditions, died on June 12 aged four months.

The premature youngster had been treated at a number of hospitals, including Birmingham Children's Hospital.

And it was the Midlands hospital which sent the letter asking for consent to conduct neuro-physiology tests on Jack, who was born blind and with metabolic bone disease and a liver disease.

"They were asking to do these tests, but they obviously had not checked to see if he had passed away," said Natalie, of Canford Heath in Poole.

"If your son has died you do not want an outpatients letter that says exactly what sort of tests they want to do on him.

"He died three-and-a-half months ago and I got this letter a few days ago. There is no reason why this should have happened," said Natalie, who works as a health care assistant at Bournemouth hospital, and praised the care Jack had received at Southampton and Poole hospitals.

In a statement Birmingham Children's Hospital said it "deeply regrets that the family of Jack Parker were sent an outpatient appointment letter after his death."

It continued: "This was due to an administrative error on our part for which we unreservedly apologise.

"We pride ourselves on the standard of care we provide and are at pains to minimise the risk of human error causing distress. The precise circumstances are being investigated further to ensure that this does not happen again."

First published: Sept 27