Furness Hospital baby deaths: Midwifery regulator probed

The deaths occurred at Furness General Hospital between 2004 and 2013

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered an inquiry into how the midwifery regulator dealt with deaths at a hospital in Barrow, Cumbria.

A report has already concluded a "lethal mix" of failings led to the deaths of 11 babies and one mother over nine years at Furness General Hospital.

Mr Hunt said he now wanted the role of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to be examined.

The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) is to conduct the review.

The "preventable" deaths occurred between 2004 and 2013 at the hospital, which is part of the Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

It was later found that the maternity unit at Furness General had been "dysfunctional" with "substandard care" provided by staff "deficient in skills and knowledge".

Working relationships between doctors and midwives were also found to be extremely poor, with midwives referring to themselves as "the musketeers" as they pursued normal childbirth "at any cost".

Mr Hunt has already called for changes in how the NMC operates

Mr Hunt has already said the NMC should no longer be responsible for the statutory supervision of midwives in the UK, suggesting there should be a move to a model of supervision similar to that of other health professionals.

The PSA review was to be carried out "as soon as possible", he said.

He added: "Given the NMC's importance in ensuring high standards of care in nursing, health visiting and midwifery, this review will provide the public and the NMC itself with independent assurance that all the lessons from its handling of the events at Morecambe Bay have been learned and acted upon."

NMC chief executive Jackie Smith said: "As an open and transparent organisation, committed to continuous improvement, we welcome the contribution of the PSA in helping us to identify learning from our handling of these cases in order to establish where we could do things differently should a similar situation arise now.

"We cannot change what has already happened; however, we must move forward by identifying how we should do things differently in the future."

In 2014 the NMC was criticised by the PSA over its handling of disciplinary cases relating to the scandal hit Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust.