Any CQC cover-up will merit maximum punishment, says Jeremy Hunt

Health secretary says any Care Quality Commission members found to have misdirected ministers, face severe consequences

Jeremy Hunt said the Care Quality Commission’s alleged cover-up of failings at a Cumbria hospital were shocking, and that he will back appropriate action against those responsible “absolutely to the hilt”.

The health secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “These are very, very serious allegations and they should have very, very serious consequences if they are proved.

“I know the CQC are looking into disciplinary procedures and what can be done: what sanctions are available; whether you can have forfeiture of pensions, all those things. There has to be due process, but … it is totally appalling that this kind of thing should happen.”

Hunt said such failings damaged the NHS and undermined “the millions of doctors and nurses who do an amazing job day in, day out”.

The health secretary also acknowledged serious systemic flaws with the way in which the CQC was set up in 2009, saying it was wrong to have the same regulator charged with both identifying and rectifying problems.

The CQC’s “generalist” system, he added, meant that the same inspector would visit such different facilities as a dental practice, a GP surgery, a hospital and a care home. He pointed to the success of the education watchdog, Ofsted, and said similar professionalism, clarity and expertise was needed in the health regulator.

Hunt’s criticisms came after the CQC finally named the three people – former chief executive Cynthia Bower, her deputy Jill Finney, and media manager Anna Jefferson – who were said to be present during a discussion at the health regulator when it was decided to suppress a report that had uncovered critical weaknesses in its inspections of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust.

James Titcombe, whose son Joshua died at the unit and who has campaigned on behalf of other grieving families, said the “police need to come to a decision very quickly” about whether to press charges against the three. The Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron has written to the Metropolitan police for an investigation into the cover-up claims — adding he believes that there is prima facie evidence that could show that misconduct in a public office has been committed.

But Titcombe also argued that the inquiries into the alleged cover-up should go further: “We want to know who else was involved with this. Does the buck stop with Cynthia Bower? Does it go up to the Department of Health?” Titcombe asked.

He added that there was evidence the Department of Health “did apply pressure on the CQC” in separate evidence to the Francis inquiry that examined poor care at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.

Titcombe said he would be meeting Bill Kirkup, the chair of the independent inquiry set up by the NHS to investigate the events surrounding Morecambe hospital. “I will be making it clear that we want everything examined from 2004 to 2012. There can be no reason why the inquiry which will be in public cannot examine everything”.

A spokesman for the shadow secretary of state for health Andy Burnham, who had been in charge of the NHS until 2010, said the Francis report had found “no evidence of any pressure being applied to the CQC”.

Similarly the former health secretary Andrew Lansley said he had first been informed in March 2012 of the CQC allegations and installed a new board in July which initiated the review of its operations.

Bower, who left the regulator last year with a £1.4m pension pot, had resigned as a non-executive director of Skills for Health, an organisation which acts as the voice of healthcare employers. Bower said she “gave no instruction to delete” the CQC review of its inspections of Morecambe hospital, but added that as the former boss of the healthcare watchdog: “The buck stops with me.”

Nominet, the internet company, said it had terminated its contract with Finney, who had been the firm’s chief operating officer. Jefferson is currently on maternity leave from her job at the regulator.

All three managers deny the allegations.

Up to 16 babies and two mothers are feared to have died at Morecambe between 2001 and 2012 because of poor care at the maternity unit at the Barrow-in-Furness hospital, part of the trust. But controversially, when the highly critical report into how the CQC handled its inspections at Morecambe was published on Wednesday, the names of those allegedly wanting to suppress that document were redacted, with the CQC arguing it was hamstrung by data protection rules.

The three officials at the heart of the row were named on Thursday afternoon after ministers, the information commissioner and the families involved successfully challenged the CQC’s initial decision to suppress their publication. The regulator said it was now seeking advice on whether “there is an appropriate action that might be taken in relation to named individuals”.

The decision by the current head of the CQC to publish its review, by City consultants Grant Thornton, offers the public a rare ringside view of decision-making at the heart of the NHS. It can now revealed that the head of regulatory risk and quality, Louise Dineley, raised the document at a meeting on 12 March last year at the regulator’s London office.

Dineley confronted Bower, Finney and Jefferson with evidence she had gathered of how the organisation had failed. However, in a meeting on 12 March, Dineley says she was given an instruction by Finney (previously identified as Mr G) “to delete [her] report and that Bower and Jefferson supported her in this”.

Finney added to the instruction the words “Read my lips” – according to the review – while Jefferson warned the damage its existence could do to the organisation’s reputation. She is reported to have said: “Are you kidding me? This can never be in the public domain nor subject to FOI [a Freedom of Information request].”

In the Grant Thornton report Bower said she had no recollection of the meeting. Jefferson said that “she could not say whether the instruction was given but if it had been [she] could not think why [she] had not acted upon it”. In interviews Finney claimed she could not remember as far back as March 2012.

But Dineley produced a handwritten contemporaneous note of the meeting to support her allegations. Grant Thornton said that “of the four accounts we were given during the course of the of our enquiries, we find [Dineley’s] version the most reliable”.

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, said: “I’m very pleased the CQC has decided to publish the names of the people involved in this. It’s a sign that the NHS is changing. There has been a history of cover-ups for many years but there has to be accountability within the NHS for people’s actions when something goes wrong.

“It’s to the credit of the new management of the CQC that they got an independent report and did not run away from this problem. They are committed to making the CQC what the public want – an organisation that speaks out without fear or favour when something goes wrong.”