NHS foundation trust the subject of 'numerous investigations, warnings and reports'

Posted: 16/03/2012

BBC News Cumbria and Lancashire continue to highlight the multiple problems experienced by University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust. The trust has been in the news several times over the past months as a result of criticisms from various Government bodies set up to oversee the NHS. In February, at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, a local MP, David Morris, raised the issue of the number of investigations into the trust’s hospitals.

Yesterday, BBC Cumbria reported that the father of a nine-day-old baby, Joshua Titcombe, who died at Furness General Hospital in 2008, was to receive £1,000 and an apology from the trust. In August 2009, during the investigations by the Nursing and Midwifery Council into Joshua’s death, an e-mail containing draft responses of treating midwives with an inappropriate heading was accidentally sent to the wrong e-mail address. (According to the BBC Cumbria report, the inquest into Joshua’s death concluded that he died as a result of the failure of the hospital to identify and treat an infection.)

At the start of this month, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), one of the Government’s health watchdogs, criticised the trust for its emergency care provision and its continued use of mixed wards in institutions in Lancaster and Barrow. The BBC reported that the trust is 'working with the CQC on improvements'.

In February, following an unannounced inspection of Lancaster Hospital in December, the CQC found that insufficient planning for admissions had resulted in a bed shortage in the hospital with patients waiting in A&E and outside the hospital. In November 2011 the trust was among more than a quarter of the NHS trusts in England which had death rates higher than they should have been, according to the research company, Dr Foster.

The trust announced, on 14 March, that it has appointed a new chief executive. South Lakes MP Tim Farron welcomed the appointment and said that 'New leadership is needed to turn our hospital trust around….we need swift and decisive change to make the improvements that are so desperately needed to ensure the highest quality care for patients.'

Return to news headlines