Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust admits patients 'deserve better'

Maternity services at Furness General Hospital have once again been criticised heavily

A health trust was placed back in the equivalent of special measures after a "significant downturn" in the quality of its services, inspectors say.

The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has been put into NHS England's new national Recovery Support Programme.

The trust runs Furness General Hospital in Barrow, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Westmorland General Hospital near Kendal.

It admitted patients "deserve better".

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the organisation as requiring improvement after carrying out an unannounced inspection in April and May having received whistleblowing information about the safety, quality and leadership of the services at all three hospitals.

The maternity rating for Furness General has dropped from good to inadequate.

'Disappointing reading'

Ann Ford, the CQC's deputy chief inspector of hospitals in the North, said past improvements "have not been sustained and the service has deteriorated, affecting patients and staff".

Major care failures were linked to at least 12 deaths of mothers and babies at the hospital between 2004 and 2012 in what became known as the Morecambe Bay scandal.

Ms Ford added the CQC's report made for "disappointing reading" and said it was clear the trust needed support.

After the inspection of stroke services at both the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General, the watchdog imposed conditions on the trust, saying inspectors were not assured all patients had received care in a timely way, exposing them to the risk of harm.

Inspectors noted that, overall, risks were not always identified correctly with appropriate mitigations put in place, and not all senior leaders demonstrated necessary experience or knowledge.

'Work to be done'

The CQC also said the trust had a "significant challenge" in managing the size of its financial deficit.

It is currently the subject of an independent review into historical problems in the urology department and another review into cases in trauma and orthopaedics.

In response to the CQC's report, trust chief executive Aaron Cummins said the organisation had made some improvements since its previous inspection but added "clearly there is still work to be done and we know our colleagues, patients and local populations deserve better".

"We have already started making improvements to address the concerns raised, including creating dedicated stroke beds in our hospitals, appointing more colleagues in emergency care and launching new electronic patient record systems in maternity."

The trust was placed in special measures in 2014 after being rated inadequate, but came out of them the following year.