THE health regulator has confirmed it is monitoring the trust which runs Furness General Hospital after concerns about its urology department were raised by a whistle-blower.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) launched an investigation after allegations were made by former consultant urologist Peter Duffy following his resignation from the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust in 2016.

The CQC met with Mr Duffy in 2016 and carried out a scheduled inspection in which inspectors found “improvements had been made” since Mr Duffy had raised his concerns but the inspectors found that “further work was needed”.

Professor Ted Baker, the CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “We followed up directly with the trust to request information as to the action they were taking to review the concerns raised by Mr Duffy and seek assurances of the measures in place to ensure patient safety.

“The trust launched an internal investigation and also asked the Royal College of Surgeons to carry out a review of the quality and safety of surgical services provided in the Urology Department.

“The findings of this review identified a number of areas for improvement and the trust developed an action plan to address these. We met regularly with the trust regarding their progress in implementing the improvements required and were assured that appropriate actions were under way.

“We also met with Mr Duffy ahead of our inspection in October 2016, to discuss his concerns so that they could be considered as part of our assessment. At that inspection we found improvements had been made and the trust was rated as good overall.

“However, there were some areas where we found that further work was needed and we continue to monitor the trust as they take that work forward.

“We have begun to review the trust’s services as part of our scheduled inspection programme, the report will be published in due course.

“If at any time we identify any concerns, or find patients are being put at risk we will always follow this up and we have a range of enforcement powers we can use to ensure that appropriate action is taken.”