Lansley Was Warned Of Baby Deaths In 2010

A former Health Secretary was warned about a cover up over baby deaths at a hospital in Cumbria three years ago.

Andrew Lansley received a letter from James Titcombe whose son Joshua died aged just nine days at Furness General Hospital.

In the letter, written on June 4, 2010, Mr Titcombe raises concerns about regulatory bodies, including the hospitals watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

He writes: "Despite all of these regulatory bodies, Joshua's death was preceded by the preventable deaths of other babies, yet no action was taken in time to make a different (sic) to our son."

He continues, "...there seems to be a gap in that the CQC can not investigate individual events and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman do not assess complaints to their office against principles of patient safety".

"In order to save lives in the NHS and react more quickly when things go wrong it is clear to me that the system in place at the moment needs to change," said Mr Titcombe.

He received a response from a Department of Health official on June 15, 2011, stating that "the Department of Health is unable to comment on individual cases and therefore the Secretary of State is not able to intervene personally on your behalf".

Hospital watchdog officials have been accused of a cover-up for allegedly deleting a report which showed they had failed to investigate properly a series of baby deaths.

James 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.

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.

He added: "What's important now is that there is really a forensic examination of possibly the Department of Health's involvement, what ministers knew at the time, what David Nicolson (head NHS England) knew at the time ... these are really important questions."

He said that there was evidence, for example, that people who worked in the CQC at the time believed that the organisation was "dancing to the tune of the Department of Health".

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "Concerns about the capability of the CQC were raised with the Department on a number of occasions by different sources, including Mr Titcombe.

"The Department of Health launched a Performance and Capability Review into the CQC which commenced in October 2011. In February 2012, the review concluded and the Chief Executive of the CQC resigned.

"We apologise to Mr Titcombe for not keeping him updated on this process."

Meanwhile the Conservative MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, David Morris, has written to Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary.

Mr Burnham was Health Secretary until Labour lost the General Election in May 2010.

In his letter Mr Morris asks Mr Burnham: "How much 'pressure' did you put on the CQC to 'tone down' its criticism of hospitals? You were the Labour Secretary of State for Health, when the first whitewash inspection of the Morecambe Bay NHS trust occurred in the spring of 2010. This was a crucial pre-election season for you."

He has also requested that Mr Burnham make public any emails, texts and letters in which the CQC was discussed and detail conversations he had with Cynthia Bower, the former head of the CQC, before the hospital was given a clean bill of health.

In a lengthy letter responding to Mr Morris, Mr Burnham denied he was trying to cover up problems at NHS hospitals.

He said: "You have made this allegation a number of times over recent days and I am glad to be able to set the record straight. The real position is the precise opposite of what you claim.

"When I was appointed in June 2009, one of my first decisions was to appoint Robert Francis QC to conduct an independent inquiry into what went wrong at Stafford. Separately, the Department raised concerns with me about the effectiveness of CQC and I began taking steps to deal with it.

"In late 2009, when problems emerged unexpectedly at Basildon and Thurrock Hospital, it became clear to me that an in-depth look at all hospitals in England was needed so that all problems could be flushed out, action taken and reassurance given to the public.

He added that "far from covering up any problems at hospitals in the pre-election period, I hope you can now see how was actively working to identify them."

A Labour spokesperson said: "This is a shocking cover-up on this Government's watch and they're clearly more interested in blaming others.

"David Morris will have a full answer later today and he'll be told in no uncertain terms that he should stop peddling these baseless and groundless allegations.

"People will see it for what it is - a political smokescreen to divert attention from Government and Andrew Lansley.

"Both this week's report and the three-year Mid Staffs inquiry found no evidence of Ministerial pressure."