NHS Cover-Up: Burnham Denies Pressuring CQC

Former health secretary Andrew Lansley has told Sky News that he did not threaten to sack a whistleblower who warned that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was in disarray.

The independent regulator is under-fire for giving Morecambe Bay NHS Trust a clean bill of health, despite deaths of mothers and up to 16 babies.

Mr Lansley, now Conservative leader of the Commons, was accused of telling whistleblower Kay Sheldon he was considering her dismissal from the CQC board after she warned a public inquiry in 2011 that the CQC was in disarray and public safety was at risk.

Speaking to Sky News he said: "In relation to Kay Sheldon, the chair of the CQC wrote to me and requested that she should be suspended from the board.

"I invited a very senior personnel professional to inquire into those matters and she did that and reported back to me.

"Contrary to what she recommended I said that I would see Kay Sheldon, and I did, that I would give her an opportunity to comment, and she did, and I didn't remove her from the board."

When pressed on whether he threatened to sack her, he said: "I said I was considering the question of her dismissal, it wasn't a threat.

"I was considering it because the CQC had asked me to do it and an independent personnel professional had recommended it, but I didn't do it."

Earlier in the day, the Labour former health secretary Andy Burnham was under pressure to explain whether he influenced the CQC at the time it gave the trust a clean bill of health.

Labour's shadow health secretary insisted he did not cover up any problems at England's hospitals in the run-up to the 2010 General Election and was in fact "actively working to identify them".

Mr Burnham told Sky News' Dermot Murnaghan that the suggestion he pressured the CQC was "fundamentally disproved" by the decisions he took while in office.

He cited his decision in 2009 to set up the Francis Inquiry to investigate failings at Stafford Hospital and said he was "taking steps" to address concerns about the health watchdog.

He said: "I can't recollect every detail of every discussion that I had in that period with the CQC.

"I am confident that it wasn't brought to me that there was a major problem at Morecambe and action needed to be taken - that didn't happen.

"What I'm saying is I don't know whether concerns were raised as part of a more general meeting and I would have to review all the paperwork to provide that extra assurance."

Morecambe MP David Morris has asked Mr Burnham to make public any emails, texts and letters in which the CQC was discussed and detail conversations he had with former CQC bosses Cynthia Bower and Baroness Young before the hospital was given a clean bill of health.

Mr Morris and Mr Burnham have exchanged a series of letters with claims and counterclaims surrounding the scandal.

It comes as the father of one of the babies who died at a hospital in Morecambe says he contacted Mr Lansley three years ago.

Mr Titcombe told Sky News he believes the CQC may have been under pressure from senior health officials not to uncover another big hospital scandal.

The reply to his letter from the Department of Health said it was unable to comment on individual cases.

Mr Titcombe and other families who lost babies at the hospital are now calling for a police investigation and an independent inquiry to establish who knew about the alleged cover-up.