CALLS have been made for the health secretary to directly intervene at a health trust after two damning reports about its services were published in the same week.

MP Tim Farron said he did not have confidence in current management at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust (UHMBT) to resolve the problems it was facing, after an independent investigation was unable to conclude that patients within the trust's urology services were safe 'at all times in the last 20 years'.

He also referred to another report published on the trust’s Trauma and Orthopaedics services, which examined 43 patients’ records following concerns about patient care.

The report by the Royal College of Surgeons - jointly commissioned by the trust and NHSE/I-agreed with concerns on 26 of the 43 cases examined, including on skills and training to carry out procedures and continuity of care.

While the Urology report, produced by consulting firm Niche, said 'there were clearly incidents that point to significant harms' and that '520 cases where actual or potential harm occurred' had been identified.

It said a 'key concern' was a 'combined failure to consistently report and robustly investigate patient safety incidents'.

It said UHMBT should have 'more consistently responded to concerns raised about the competency and conduct of all urology consultants'.

It also said the trust should have followed its own internal investigation and grievance policies and ensured investigations 'were thorough and wide-ranging'.

UHMBT runs Furness General Hospital in Barrow, Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal, and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Mr Farron has now called for Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid to intervene to help solve the myriad of problems raised by the reports.

“In the end there’s been patient harm, and quite serious patient harm,” he said.

"I don't think we can have confidence in the current leadership to solve this and so what I've called for is the secretary of state to directly intervene and direct the trust for at least a period of months so that these issues are sorted out."

Mr Farron believes issues at the trust stem from ‘personnel, human resources and underfunding’ and criticised the trust for ‘demonising’ whistle-blowers.

The Urology report cited findings from the 2015 Kirkup report stating that the trust had ‘previously been criticised for the way that staff had not been enabled to speak out on matters of care quality and bullying due to interprofessional and hierarchical jealousies’.

Mr Farron said: “It’s not easy to run a department over three sites, we understand that and more money would help.

“I think we are underfunded as a rural trust.

“But a lot of this is about relationships, poor management and bullying.”

He expressed concerns about the morale of trust staff members who may now feel ‘tainted’ following the reports.

“99.9 per cent of the staff are fantastic and their morale will be absolutely whacked by this.”

Following the Urology report’s release, Aaron Cummins, UHMBT chief executive, apologised to patients and their families who had been affected and said the trust 'fully' supported and accepted the findings of the report.

He added that ‘some progress’ has already been made and that the trust will ‘continue to ensure improvements are made as quickly as possible and are sustained’.

On the Trauma and Orthopaedics report Mr Cummins said the trust had been ‘open and honest’ at ‘all times’ to establish the truth behind allegations relating to a ‘small number’ of cases within the service and that improvements had been made.

He said: "We are grateful to NHS England/Improvement for their support to our leadership, which has strengthened since the trust entered the national Recovery Support Programme in August. The experience and additional capacity they have brought has been hugely valuable as we continue the process of improvement."