Maternity and neonatal services at three hospitals where more than 3,500 babies are delivered every year are expected to be criticised in a report to be published on Tuesday.
An investigation into deaths and “serious untoward incidents” between 2004 and 2013 at units in Cumbria and Lancashire – all run by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS foundation trust – was commissioned by the health secretary Jeremy Hunt following safety concerns.
It also looked into the deaths of babies who were transferred to other units not run by the trust. The actions of health commissioners and regulators have formed a major party of the inquiry, too.
The report will make recommendations on the lessons that the wider NHS should learn from what happened at the trust.
Officials at the Care Quality Commission – which has previously been accused of a cover-up over Morecambe Bay – and in the office of the health service ombudsman, as well as from the local NHS, were among more than 100 individuals interviewed by Bill Kirkup, chairman of the investigation.
The ombudsman’s office initially failed to investigate the complaints of one family – that of Joshua Titcombe, who died in 2008 – for which the present ombudsman Dame Julie Mellor apologised last year as she delivered her own devastating report into the baby’s death, calling for cultural change in understanding why mistakes happened.
