a damning report into one of the nhs’s worst scandals is today expected to reveal up to ten missed opportunities to intervene to prevent poor care the independent inquiry will be highly critical of how, despite a string of baby deaths, watchdogs gave an nhs trust the all clear only one month before the last general election today’s report is expected to conclude that between 2004 and 2011 there were a series of missed chances to step in at every level, from the hospital to the department of health tragedy: joshua titcombe was nine days old when he died from an infection that should have been treated with antibiotics at furness general hospital, cumbria  up to 30 babies and mothers are thought to have died because of failings by midwives and doctors at furness general hospital in barrow investigators are thought to have examined around 50 cases where poor maternity care has been alleged the findings will again put labour in the dock over its stewardship of the health service, revealing appalling care over years under the last government the official report into care at the unit, run by university hospitals of morecambe bay nhs foundation trust, will paint a damning picture of what went wrong, with echoes of the mid staffs hospital scandal, according to whitehall sources former labour health secretary andy burnham was informed about concerns over maternity care at morecambe bay in january 2010 up to 30 babies and mothers died at furness general hospital because of failings by midwives and doctors, a damning report is expected to reveal  locally, the alarm was first raised in 2008 when nine day old joshua titcombe died on a ward at furness an inquest heard midwives and medical staff made ten serious errors that contributed to joshua’s death, including a failure to detect and monitor an infection his parents repeatedly asked if he should have antibiotics and complained he was wheezing and not feeding properly he eventually died from blood poisoning medical charts subsequently went missing and the coroner raised suspicions that they may have been deliberately destroyed health officials tried to cover up their failure to investigate poor patient care, it is claimed mr burnham, now labour’s shadow health secretary, has repeatedly denied being made aware of ‘specific warnings’ about the hospital or putting any pressure on the care quality commission to tone down criticism of the nhs ahead of the 2010 election grief: james and hoa titcombe lost their baby son joshua in 2008  but david morris, conservative mp for morecambe and lunesdale, said he was ‘surprised and disappointed’ that mr burnham had not been interviewed by the inquiry, chaired by dr bill kirkup, a former department of health associate medical director who also served on an investigation into hillsborough ‘it’s hard to understand why the inquiry hasn’t listened to parents who wanted andy burnham to be questioned,’ mr morris said ‘they should disclose the reasons why they decided not to call him’ joshua’s father james titcombe, who was appointed to the cqc in 2013 to try to prevent a repeat of such tragedies, is also understood to have protested in an email to dr kirkup, seen by the daily mail, mr titcombe wrote: ‘i do want to put on record that i am very surprised and disappointed that the investigation hasn’t interviewed andy burnham i have… raised with you on many occasions, the evidence from people who were working in the system at the time that there was a culture of “no bad news” ‘i am sure that your investigation must have uncovered issues relating to some of the external, system and national policy issues that impacted on the way people were behaving at the time’ victims’ families reacted with anger when mr burnham tried to arrange a meeting ahead of today’s findings carl hendrickson, whose wife and newborn son died, said: ‘none of us were interested andy burnham has hidden under a stone for six years when labour said they were weaponising the nhs for the election, it made me want to vomit’ a spokesman for mr burnham said he ‘acted entirely properly’ at all times in relation to morecambe bay he had volunteered to campaigners the fact that information on maternity care at the trust had been included in an annexe to a wider briefing on issues that might be raised in a meeting with a local mp in 2010 a labour party spokesman said: ‘the report will dismiss these political allegations and confirm that no labour health secretary was briefed on morecambe bay it will instead say that the terrible failings, which span this government and the last one, were very localised’ an inquiry spokesman said it ‘found no evidence that would have required an interview’ of mr burnham
joshua titcombe 2008 first cumbria furness general hospital
up to 30 babies and mothers died at furness general hospital  concerns first raised in 2008 when joshua titcombe died of infection  baby should have been treated with antibiotics at hospital in cumbria  new inquiry will conclude that neglect contributed to even more deaths 