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Health Secretary Wes Streeting said a list of potential candidates to lead the probe is being drawn up (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\nSir Julian Hartley raised concerns that his position at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) \u201cmay undermine trust and confidence\u201d in the regulator.<\/p>\n
He was previously chief executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for 10 years until 2023.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced an inquiry into the trust, after a BBC investigation revealed the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers over the past five years may have been prevented.<\/p>\n
Following the announcement, the parents said they felt gaslit, dismissed and even blamed for what went wrong.<\/p>\n
Sir Julian said it was an \u201cincredibly difficult decision\u201d, but feels his current post \u201chas become incompatible with the important conversations happening about care at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust\u201d, which includes the time he was chief executive there.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI am so sorry for the fact that some families suffered harm and loss during this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be giving whatever support I can to the inquiry into maternity services at Leeds, so families get the transparency and answers that they need and deserve \u2013 and I want to avoid my connection with the trust impacting on CQC\u2019s work to rebuild people\u2019s confidence in the regulator.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that he is \u201chugely proud\u201d of his work at the CQC since he joined at the end of last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI leave grateful for the part I was able to play and confident that the better approach being built will be owned, and informed, by colleagues, providers and stakeholders with a shared vision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Sir Mike Richards, chair of the CQC, said: \u201cWhile Sir Julian\u2019s departure will be a huge loss to CQC, I understand his concerns that his previous role at Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust may undermine trust and confidence in CQC\u2019s regulation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am grateful to him for making this unselfish decision in recognition of the need for the regulator to be visibly held to the highest standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recruitment for Sir Julian\u2019s successor will begin shortly.<\/p>\n
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said a list of potential candidates to lead the probe is being drawn up (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n
Mr Streeting told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Woman\u2019s Hour on Thursday that he is \u201cdrawing up a potential list\u201d of candidates to lead the Leeds inquiry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI listened to families in Leeds last week about the sort of person they would want,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It comes amid calls from the families that Donna Ockenden should head the probe.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Streeting said the senior midwife will not be appointed as she is leading work on maternity services in Nottingham, Shrewsbury and Telford.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIf I could clone her, I would. But the challenge I\u2019ve got \u2013 and it\u2019s not just in Leeds, but in other parts of the country \u2013 because Donna has earned the trust of the families that she\u2019s working with, everyone wants Donna.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I understand that, and I have huge respect for her, but I\u2019ve got to make sure that when firstly protecting the work that Donna is already doing, but I\u2019ve also got to build a wider team of people too.\u201d<\/p>\n
LTH is one of 14 trusts included in a rapid maternity investigation led by Baroness Amos, which was ordered by Mr Streeting last month.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI feel this enormous pressure on my shoulders to make sure that I\u2019m doing everything I can, as fast as I can, to improve the quality of maternity services and Valerie Amos is a hugely experienced and respected leader, both in Government diplomacy and in higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Streeting added: \u201cWe\u2019ve also got the Leeds inquiry up and running because I was persuaded by families and by the data, that that trust is such an outlier \u2013 and it\u2019s one of the largest trusts in Europe \u2013 that we had to look specifically at failures there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going as quickly as we can. There is improvements taking place every day \u2013 10,000 babies are born every week in this country, and the vast majority are delivered safely, without any problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I want to end this culture where we accept infant mortality in a way that other advanced economies and health systems simply do not do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Julian Hartley raised concerns that his position at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) \u201cmay undermine trust and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-522382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115423976841243732","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}