CALLS have been made for the healthcare trust that runs Furness General Hospital (FGH) to publish an external report into its urology services.

Former surgeon at FGH’s urology department, Peter Duffy, and the family of a man who died amid failings Mr Duffy blew the whistle over have both requested that a copy of the report be made public.

Aside from Mr Duffy, Karen Beamer - whose father, Peter Read, died as a result of urology failings and is to be subject to a further inquest - says she has also tried to obtain a copy of the report, but that the trust ‘was not forthcoming’.

Both parties say they have been denied a copy of the report produced as part of the review carried out by InterBe late last year, which examined the professional working culture within UHMBT's urology departments and services.

Bill Kirkup's 2015 review into the maternity scandal at UHMBT - then, the biggest in the NHS’s history - recommended trusts should ‘report openly’ all external investigations into clinical services and governance, which includes sharing the findings of external reports with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The CQC, which regulates NHS trusts, has confirmed the contents of the InterBe report have not been shared by the trust.

Mr Duffy's whistleblowing case exposed failings in the trust’s urology services, leading to an external review being commissioned by UHMBT and a police probe being called for by the trust's governors last year.

Concerning the InterBe report, he said this week: “The Kirkup Report gave UHMBT an opportunity to start afresh and revisit its governance standards and duty of candour in its dealings with the public, H M Coroner and the regulators, particularly the Care Quality Commission and NHS England.

“Unfortunately my experiences suggest that exactly the same culture that got the trust into so much trouble in the earlier part of the decade still persists.

"It is not something that is unique to UHMBT and I suspect that a similar culture of “cover-up and carry-on” is common to many NHS institutions."

The Mail has also requested a copy of the report.

The trust said that, because the InterBe review is an external report, permission would need to be sought for it to be published.

UHMBT's medical director, Shahedal Bari, said yesterday: "The report by Interbe is an interim report from an external agency on their work within the urology department to improve the culture of the department.

"We have already shared the report with Niche Health and Social Care Consulting, the organisation carrying out an independent external investigation into issues surrounding the service."

John Woodcock, who was MP for Barrow at the time of the Kirkup Review, told The Mail that UHMBT’s ‘commitment to openness and transparency must be enduring and not just a flash in the pan’.

“I remember the enthusiastic way in which the Kirkup recommendations were welcomed at the time,” he said.

“The trust’s leadership must ensure the pledge it made then to improve transparency is a lasting one.”