Hospital staff tell of ‘outpouring of hatred’

Staff at the hospital where brain cancer sufferer Ashya King was treated before he was taken abroad by his parents have spoken about the “outpouring of hatred” they received — but said they would act in the same way if it happened again.

Medics at Southampton General Hospital told a BBC documentary how the torrent of abuse basically shut down the hospital’s switchboard after it “became a story of a hospital who was chasing down a family”.

One doctor said that he received hate mail from someone telling him they wished his own children would get cancer and die.

The hospital came under the glare of the world’s media last August after Ashya’s parents took him abroad for treatment against the advice of NHS specialists who had been caring for him in Southampton.

A major manhunt for the family was launched after Brett and Naghemeh King took the boy from hospital without consent, leading to fears he could die .

At the time Ashya could not swallow and had to be fed through his nose, but the couple said last month he made a “miracle” recovery after receiving proton beam therapy in Prague.

Matron Kate Pye told the programme she would call the police again if put in the same situation. “They put him at huge risk,” she said of Ashya’s parents.

“And if you asked me again, ’Would I phone the police?’ the answer would be yes every time.

“Because if something had happened to that little boy in that car, then we would have been accountable for that.”

Paediatric intensive care consultant Dr Peter Wilson said the family put him and his colleagues in a difficult position as Ashya has not been deemed suitable for proton beam therapy.

“It does put clinicians in an impossible position because we now have to try to explain to families why one child... is getting a form of treatment, why they can’t and they’ve got the same tumour. That’s deeply unfair when the NHS is supposed to be about equal healthcare for all.”

The Kings were arrested in Spain after fleeing the UK and spent several nights in prison away from their son before being released.

A High Court judge subsequently approved the move to take Ashya to Prague for proton beam therapy, which was claimed to be more effective than conventional radiotherapy offered on the NHS.