A TROUBLED health watchdog may have overlooked serious problems in Morecambe Bay’s maternity services 18 months before they were finally revealed, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron claims.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected maternity services across the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust (UHMBT) in June 2010 and found no problems.

But Mr Farron said he had ‘received information’ that the CQC, one of the regulators looking into failings at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, could have ‘missed many serious risks’.

The MP said he discovered that in June 2010, almost two years after the tragic death of Dalton-in-Furness baby Joshua Titcombe at Furness General Hospital, the CQC found the hospital’s maternity ward to be fully satisfactory.

However, just 18 months later in December 2011, a diagnostic review of the hospital by independent regulator, Monitor, which was sparked by an inquest into Joshua’s death, found 119 risks within the hospital of which 66 were described a red, highlighting a serious failure.

Mr Farron said this raised serious concerns over the inspection model used by the CQC. He claimed it was ‘incredibly unlikely’ that these risks were not present in the June 2010 inspection.

“This is extremely concerning news and raises a whole new question as to whether we should be investigating the regulators who have the oversight for ensuring patient safety at the trust.

“It is not credible to think that these risks and red lines which were uncovered in December 2011 were not there just 18 months earlier, especially considering the crisis at Furness General’s maternity unit goes all the way back to 2008 and possibly even earlier.

“I will now be seeking reassurances from both the Health Secretary and the CQC that the failings in the model for inspection are being reviewed and corrected in order to prevent further disasters like the crisis at UHMBT.”

A CQC spokeswoman said: “In June 2010, CQC made an unannounced inspection to check whether UHMBT had made specific improvements to the identification of risk for mothers and babies - we found that these improvements had been made. We subsequently received new information, including the Fielding report, the Coroner’s inquest into Joshua Titcombe’s death, the Ombudsman’s findings and concerns raised by the NMC, which led us to return to the trust to re-inspect maternity services and a full planned review in April 2011.”