A COUPLE grieving over the death of their baby have criticised the NHS for bombarding them with calls asking them to attend appointments with their daughter.

Michelle Webster, 24, said her daughter Sophia was eight months old when she was taken to hospital in Spain during a family holiday.

Along with her fiance Anthony Capstick, 26, they were told she had suspected mitochondrial disease and, following a number of appointments and scans, she died in May.

But the couple, from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, were forced to relive the loss of their daughter when they started to receive calls from staff at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

"We have had six phone calls from the hospital and we had three of them last week. I really was at the end of my tether," said Ms Webster.

"We have done really well since her death, the first and second time it happened I brushed it under the carpet but the final straw was when a midwife rang me and said ‘congratulations, you are pregnant’.

"I told her I wasn't, and she said sorry, you have already had your daughter, but when I told her she had died she was mortified."

Another call came from an audiology department saying she had missed an appointment and was placing her daughter's health at risk.

The couple say they are still angry as they have yet to receive a formal apology from the trust.

Ms Webster said: "After I told one of the callers about what had happened, all she said was, did you ring the hospital to tell us she had died?

"I thought that's ridiculous.

"I'm amazed because they have not said sorry to us directly and we are still really angry. We just want to raise the profile of this and ultimately get an apology."

The trust issued a statement saying: "We sincerely apologise to Ms Webster for contacting her. We understand how upsetting this must be for her.

"Unfortunately, although the trust had been informed of her daughter's death, the relevant database had not been updated, and this has now been done.

"We will be looking at our procedures to make sure this does not happen again. We are very sorry for the distress caused."