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NHS 'cover-up' names revealed by CQC | NHS 'cover-up' names revealed by CQC |
(35 minutes later) | |
Officials alleged to have been involved in an NHS regulator's cover-up of failures over deaths of babies at a Cumbria hospital have been identified. | Officials alleged to have been involved in an NHS regulator's cover-up of failures over deaths of babies at a Cumbria hospital have been identified. |
The Care Quality Commission has named former chief executive Cynthia Bower, her deputy Jill Finney and media manager Anna Jefferson. | The Care Quality Commission has named former chief executive Cynthia Bower, her deputy Jill Finney and media manager Anna Jefferson. |
They were all said to be present at a meeting where deletion of a critical report was allegedly discussed. | They were all said to be present at a meeting where deletion of a critical report was allegedly discussed. |
Ms Bower and Ms Jefferson have denied being involved in a cover-up. | |
Ms Finney has not yet commented. | |
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted following the naming of the officials: "Pleased to receive CQC letter naming the individuals involved. Clear sign NHS is changing. We must have accountability throughout the system." | |
Problems 'unnoticed' | |
The three officials were not initially named when claims first surfaced on Wednesday. | |
But the CQC was forced into a U-turn amid mounting pressure from ministers and the information commissioner. | But the CQC was forced into a U-turn amid mounting pressure from ministers and the information commissioner. |
The allegations of a cover-up emerged in a report by consultants Grant Thornton, commissioned by the CQC after a new leadership team was appointed last summer. | |
The report said the three officials attended a meeting in March 2012 with the author of an internal report detailing the CQC's monitoring of Furness General Hospital. | |
Grant Thornton found that in 2011 an internal review was ordered into how problems had gone unnoticed. | |
But the author of the report - Louise Dineley, CQC head of regulatory risk and quality - said that in a meeting in March 2012 with the three officials named she was told to delete the report by Ms Finney and that Ms Jefferson and Ms Bower had "verbally agreed". | |
Ms Dineley claimed Ms Finney, who has now left the CQC, said "read my lips" when she gave the instruction. | |
The Grant Thornton report concluded this "might well have constituted a deliberate cover-up". | |
'Heartbreaking' | |
The allegations have been denied by those involved. | The allegations have been denied by those involved. |
Ms Bower said she "gave no instruction to delete" the internal review, but added that as the boss of the healthcare watchdog: "The buck stops with me." | |
In a statement issued to the BBC, Ms Jefferson, who is still an employee of the CQC, said: "I am a new mother myself and the thought of what the families who have lost babies at this hospital have gone through is heartbreaking. | In a statement issued to the BBC, Ms Jefferson, who is still an employee of the CQC, said: "I am a new mother myself and the thought of what the families who have lost babies at this hospital have gone through is heartbreaking. |
"I would never have conspired to cover up anything which could have led to a better understanding of what went wrong in the regulation of this hospital. | |
"I am so appalled that I have been implicated in this way." | |
The CQC had given the hospital - run by Morecambe Bay NHS Trust - a clean bill of health in 2010 despite problems emerging about the maternity unit . | |
More than 30 families have now taken legal action against the hospital in relation to baby and maternal deaths and injuries from 2008. |