Want to campaign for a chance in the law - where to start??

[Wanttomakeachange]

I’m a regular mumsnet user and poster but for reasons I hope will become clear in my post I have NC’d and I am keeping things vague on purpose.

2 years ago DH and I lost our child, due to clinical negligence. We are currently involved in a clinical negligence claim with the Trust involved and it is soon to be concluded in a financial settlement. We went down this avenue because we wanted to the Trust to admit liability and pay for what they’ve done. They have admitted liability and we’ll get some money but for us it’s not about the money but the changes we want them to implement to correct the failings. They are going some way to putting things in place to correct some failings.

However in pursuing this claim we have been shocked at how irrelevant DH is and how little the impact on him is in included. As the mother, the claim is in my name. DH who was present at the time of her very unexpected and sudden death is not included in the claim. Ive had to have a psychiatric assessment to talk about the impact, I’ve done a witness statement describing what happened etc... but DH has not been for anything. There is such a thing as a secondary victim claim which we could pursue for him but these are incredibly hard to prove and we are discussing with our solicitor whether to attempt to puruse this. Our solicitor agrees the law is unfair in respect of the criteria that have to be met to allow these secondary victim claims. DH has been just as affected by Our child’s death as me and in fact has had to give up his job and take a less pressurised one as he has been diagnosed with acute PTSD. None of this counts in any claim we have made. DH understandably feels ignored and insignificant and we want to look at trying to raise awareness of this and pursuing a campaign to have this looked at.

I realise this is no easy task and may amount to nothing but we feel we need to try to try to combat this unfairness. But we have no idea what to do and where to start. Aside from
writing to our MP, who we have little faith in, and maybe starting a petition with signatures, is there anything else we can do to get this ball rolling? Grateful for any suggestions/advice anyone has.

I am so sorry for your loss. I agree it should either be a joint claim as parents or individual to recognise both parents have suffered.

The best way an individual can change the law is to lodge a claim and pursue it through the courts. This is a time consuming, stressful and costly process. It would take over your life for years, possibly a decade.

What you need is other parents/families in similar situations joining forces. This requires publicity to bring you all together. You then need a well organised campaign, this requires a lot of admin and organisation to be successful.

Look at similar types of campaigns e.g. Hillsborough families, contaminated blood scandal, sling the mesh, PIP breast implants. These give you an idea of what you are up against.

I support what you are trying to achieve but feel you need to understand how big a task this is. Only you and your husband can decide how far you are prepared to go and how much effort you can put into achieving this.

Good luck.

@Margaritatime thanks for your reply. I know this is probably going to be a futile exercise but DH and I feel we have to try to do something. It’s so unfair how he has been cast aside simply because he didn’t give birth.

Thank you for those suggestions, very helpful. I realise we are tiny fish in a huge ocean but I’d rather try and fail than not try at all. Thanks again

I understand and wish you luck.