Eleven babies and one mother died following "a lethal mix" of failures in a "seriously dysfunctional" maternity unit at Furness General Hospital, an independent inquiry has found.
Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust have apologised "unreservedly" to the families who suffered as a result of failures in one of its hospital's "seriously dysfunctional" maternity units.
Pearse Butler, Chair of the Trust Board, said: "This Trust made some very serious mistakes in the way it cared for mothers and their babies. More than that, the same mistakes were repeated. And after making those mistakes, there was a lack of openness from the Trust in acknowledging to families what had happened.
"For these reasons, on behalf of the Trust, I apologise unreservedly to the families concerned. I'm deeply sorry that so many people have suffered as a result of these mistakes."
The Chairman of the Morecambe Bay Investigation, Dr Bill Kirkup, has said there was a "disturbing catalogue of missed opportunities" at Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.
He said had proper investigations into serious incidents been conducted as far back as 2004 it would have raised the alarm about the level of maternity and paediatric care being provided.
He said: "There was a disturbing catalogue of missed opportunities, initially and most significantly by the Trust but subsequently involving the North West Strategic Health Authority, the Care Quality Commission, Monitor, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and the Department of Health.
"Over the next three years, there were at least seven opportunities to intervene that were missed. The result was that no effective action was taken until the beginning of 2012."
Kirkup added that the trust should acknowledge and apologise for what happened at Furness General Hospital.
Dave Whelan has resigned as chairman of Wigan Athletic and appointed his 23-year-old grandson, David Sharpe, as his successor.
Whelan steps down after 20 years with the club nine points adrift from safety in the Championship and facing up to relegation into England's third tier.
In December 2014, he was banned for six weeks by the FA and fined £50,000 for racist comments he made about Jewish and Chinese people.
A club statement confirmed:
A contract between healthcare professionals and patients to be 'open and honest' when things went wrong was broken, the Chairman of the Morecambe Bay Investigation said today.
As a result of the broken contract there were 20 incidents of significant failings of care in Furness which may have contributed to the deaths of three mothers and 16 babies, Doctor Bill Kirkup said today.
A "lethal mix" of poor clinical care and relationships between doctors and midwives led to the deaths of 11 babies and one mother.
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