A HEALTH watchdog has called for the resignation of the chief executive of the East Lancashire Health Authority after a report into the death of baby Emma Jade Dyson.

The report highlighted six factors which might have prevented the death of four month old Emma, who was put into the Leeds and Liverpool canal in Burnley by her mother Robina Hashim, who was suffering from mental health problems.

The mother had been released from Burnley General Hospital just days before the tragedy and the health authority, Burnley Healthcare Trust and Lancashire Social Services have pledged to do all they can to prevent a similar tragedy happening again.

Coun Frank Clifford said it was wrong that no disciplinary action had been enforced against individuals concerned in the care and wellbeing of the mother and called for the chief executive of the East Lancashire Health Authority David Peat to do the honourable thing and resign.

Today Mr Peat said he didn't think there was any reason for him to resign. He said significant sums of money had been put into the mental health services in Burnley and throughout East Lancashire from the mid to late 1990s onwards with over £2 million being invested.

Coun Clifford, chairman of the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Community Health Council, said the people most culpable were the ELHA who had issued a report six and a half years ago identifying weaknesses and shortfalls in the mental health service in Burnley. He said the service was under-funded and under-staffed.

Coun Clifford said: "Burnley Health Care Trust was allowed to go jogging along without the right amount of money for the mental health service. ELHA should look at this and I expect resignations. The captain of the ship is the person in charge of sailing it and I am talking about the chief executive."

He said: "In industry disciplinary action is taken against people every day when they are found to be in breech of their duty. Here a life has been lost.

People have to take responsibility for what they do. We are dealing with lives her. People should ask themselves can they sleep comfortably in their beds and just carry on."

Fourteen recommendations are being tackled in a multi-action plan, much of it in conjunction with Lancashire social services.

Robina was released from Burnley General Hospital by consultant psychiatrist Dr Kahled Yasin in the days before her child's death in March 2000. The report said he had not fully read the notes into her background and was unaware of a previous conviction for harming her first child.

It was admitted that Dr Yashin and the service was then under huge pressure because of staff shortages not because of financial issues but because of being unable to recruit people with the necessary expertise. Extra staff have since been appointed.

A mistake was made in not referring mother and child to a special unit at Withington Hospital and Robina was not prescribed sufficient medication to control her illness.

A week before the tragedy when her symptoms re-emerged she was not visited by her community psychiatric nurse and was not assessed personally by Dr Yashin or re-admitted to hospital.

Had her full child assault history been known to those caring for her Robina's case would not have been treated as routine.

Last year Robina, 30, of Clare Street, Burnley, was ordered by a judge at Preston Crown Court to be detained indefinitely in a mental unit after she admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He was told she had reported hearing voices telling her to put the baby into the water.

ELHA is a strategic and commissioning organisation which buys services for the people of East Lancashire which are provided by the healthcare trust.

Mr Peat said they had developed various programmes including outreach teams in the community, primary health care, counselling, a new psychiatric intensive care unit and other measures.

He said: "It is unfortunate Coun Clifford has chosen to say these things. The inquiry report did not accept that the service was underfunded at that time but there were issues about the level of medical staff on the ward."

Burnley MP Peter Pike said he had not yet considered the question of disciplinary action.

He said: "At the end of the day the number one priority is to make sure it doesn't happen again."