Watchdog allowed cover-up at health trust where newborn babies died

 
27 March 2013

England’s health watchdog was today accused by one of its own directors of giving “false assurance” over hospital standards at a trust where several mothers and babies died.

The allegations were made by Kay Sheldon, a non-executive director of the Care Quality Commission. Her claims come as the NHS is reeling from the Mid-Staffordshire scandal in which up to 1,200 patients may have died needlessly.

Ms Sheldon suggested that the watchdog was involved in a cover-up over poor care levels as the appalling truth over the deaths at Stafford Hospital was starting to emerge.

“The Mid Staffs public inquiry was under way and it had been said by the Department of Health that Mid Staffs was a one-off and there was a real sense that finding another Mid Staffs had to be avoided at all costs,” she told BBC radio. “There were a number of hospitals where the problems were well known and yet they were registered as fully compliant or subsequently inspected as fully compliant.”

Ms Sheldon said one of the trusts concerned was University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust, now under police investigation after several mothers and babies died at Furness General Hospital.

She said the CQC knew of serious problems at the trust at the start of 2010 but in April it was registered as fully compliant. “There is no way that the trust could have turned itself round in two or three months,” she said. “It seems to me that CQC gave assurance about the trust that wasn’t accurate.

“It was a very shocking thing to find, thinking that an organisation that’s there to protect patients had effectively given what amounted to false assurance and that meant that problems in the trust carried on unacknowledged.”

CQC chief executive David Behan, who took over last year, said an independent review was under way into what happened at Morecambe Bay.

“The allegations that have been made are very serious,” he said. “I am absolutely committed that CQC will be an open and transparent organisation. We will publish this report and we will be accountable for the work that we do.”

He said major changes to the CQC were being introduced. A new chief inspector will be appointed, “deep dive” teams will check hospitals where there are concerns and unannounced inspections will be carried out.

A CQC spokesman added: “The matters Kay Sheldon have raised are not new and have been reported and discussed internally and externally.” Jackie Daniel, chief executive of the Morecambe Bay trust, said: “The trust has let women and their families down in the past and the new board is committed to learning important lessons for the benefit of everyone who uses its hospitals. Significant progress has been made since regulators intervened.”

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