Dalton dad joins new hospital investigation service

Government health secretary Jeremy Hunt has launched a move to create a new air accident investigation-style body for the health service.

It forms part of a raft of measures designed to ensure tragedies such as the needless deaths of 11 babies and a mother at Barrow’s maternity unit over the course of nine years are prevented in the future.

Leading patient safety campaigner and Dalton resident James Titcombe has been announced as a working group member of the newly formed Independent Patient Safety Investigation Service which will take effect from April 2016.

Mr Titcombe began calling for an independent investigation body to be set up for the health service following the death of his baby son Joshua at Furness General Hospital in 2008.

He claimed it should mirror investigation systems already in place within the nuclear industry and other areas of the private sector.

“One of the problems in Morecambe Bay was that there was a serious failure within the trust itself and outside to respond to the individual incidents,” he told the Evening Mail.

“It should never have taken so many years and an investigation to recognise where the systemic problems were.

“This is a really exciting move to ensure there is independent body to address problems early on.

“It should mean we never see another Morecambe Bay because lessons should have been learned much earlier.”

The working group will spend the next eight months deciding exactly how IPSIS will work – including setting out its governance structure and scope. Other prominent members include Dr Mike Durkin, national director for patient safety, Keith Conradi, chief inspector for the Air Accidents Investigations Branch, and Dr Bill Kirkup CBE, author of the Morecambe Bay Investigation report.

Mr Titcombe added IPSIS could transform patient safety across the country.

He said “It will be really nice to be a part of the working group which I think can really make a big difference.”