20 Jun 2013

‘No reason not to name’ those behind NHS cover-up

Former Labour minister Ben Bradshaw says there is no legal reason to prevent publication of the names of those involved in a cover-up at the NHS regulator the CQC.

No reason not to name those behind the NHS cover up at Morecambe (Image: Reuters)

In a tweet on Thursday, Mr Bradshaw said “Information Commissioner confirms what I told [Jeremy] Hunt yesterday, no reason not to name those responsible for Morecambe scandal.”

England’s NHS regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), has been widely criticised for withholding the names of those at the centre of an internal cover-up.

A damning report published on Wednesday found that the CQC deliberately suppressed an internal review that highlighted its weak inspections of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust.

The report found that a senior manager ordered the review to be destroyed because it was “potentially damaging to the CQC’s reputation”.

Public interest

David Behan, chief executive of CQC, said the regulator could not name the managers involved in the cover up for legal reasons.

He said: “Ever since I commissioned this independent review it has been our intention to place the report into the public domain. We received legal advice that we could not name individuals and to do so would be to break the law. We are now seeking a review of the original legal advice.

Speaking on BBC2’s Newsnight Mr Behan said: “This feels like a public authority hiding behind the Data Protection Act, it’s very common, but you have to go by what the law says and the law is very clear.”

But the Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday that using the Data Protection Act to withhold names “just looks like a get out”.

He said there was no “blanket ban” on publishing names in reports if disclosure was in the public interest.

Mr Graham explained: “There’s no blanket ban under the Data Protection Act that would deal with a situation like this.”

Deputy information commissioner David Smith made it clear that the Act should not be used “as a barrier” to keep information out of the public domain where there is an “overriding public interest in disclosure”.

‘Criminal offence’

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the “whole truth” about the incident must come out, and that individuals must be held to account.

He told MPs: “There should be no anonymity, no hiding place, no opportunity to get off scot-free for anyone at all who was responsible for this.”

Meanwhile, Lord Macdonald, a former director of public prosecutions, took the call for justice a stage further. He told The Times newspaper: “If officials had deliberately suppressed failings from the public that must raise the question as to what criminal offences were being committed by that conduct.

“If we are talking about a health institution where competence can be a matter of life or death, it is particularly important that regulators can be trusted to investigate and expose serious failings.”

MP Tim Farron has already written to the Metropolitan Police asking them to examine whether an offence has been committed.

In a letter to Met commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale wrote: “I believe this information that has come to light today could be prima facie evidence that an offence has been committed. I urge you to proceed with an investigation using the evidence available.”

Concerns about the maternity unit at Furness General Hospital in Cumbria came to light in 2008, but the CQC gave the Morecambe Bay trust – which runs the hospital – a clean bill of health in 2010.

In March 2011, Cumbria Police launched an investigation into a cluster of maternity deaths at the trust.

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