HEALTH bosses have admitted that negligent hospital staff caused or contributed to the death of a Blackburn boy by giving him a muscle relaxing drug.

The admission came to light the day after it was revealed that two female nurses at Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital could face criminal charges over the death of 18-month-old Jake McGeough, of Blackburn, on July 8.

Solicitors Hill Dickinson, in Liverpool, acting on behalf of the Royal Liverpool Children's Trust, have written to the solicitor acting for Jake's parents, and admitted negligence.

Kieran O'Connor, of Farley's Solicitors, Blackburn, who is seeking compensation on behalf of the family, confirmed today he had received a letter from his counterparts in Liverpool which stated: "We are instructed to admit that the administration of Vecuronium to Jake McGeough on the July 6 2001 was negligent and that such negligence caused or substantially contributed to Jake's death."

Vecuronium is used to relax patients before medical procedures.

Mr O'Connor said: "This is good news for the family and means they will not have to go through the court process."

Jake's mother, 24-year-old Keira McGeough, of Leicester Road, Blackburn, said: "I still can't believe something like this can happen and I hope it never happens to anybody else. Any money we get from this will never bring Jake back."

Wendy Natale, chief officer of Liverpool East Community Health Care Council, today said: "It's very worrying when things like this occur.

"The important thing now is to learn from the mistakes and put things in place to make sure it cannot happen again.

"This incident is not isolated in the NHS and unfortunately the NHS is not very good at learning from its mistakes.

"The next time I meet with the chief executive of the hospital trust we will certainly be discussing this."

The hospital Trust is still conducting its own internal inquiry into what happened with the help of a clinical governance team from the Department of Health.

A spokesman for the Trust said the inquiry would establish what went wrong and what could be done to prevent it happening again. The two nurses involved have been suspended and police are preparing a report for the Crown Prosecution Service.

An inquest was held in Liverpool on Monday and adjourned until January 8.

Keira and Wayne, who have three other young children, Nicole, eight, Danielle, four and Wayne, six, laid Jake to rest at Pleasington Cemetery, in August, following a service at St Joseph's RC Church, in Audley Range.

It is believed tests have been carried out on Jake's body after two post mortem examinations proved inconclusive.

Jake had been transferred to Alder Hey Hospital from Queen's Park, in Blackburn, after Keira and Wayne took him in with a suspected chest infection.

Keira said after an initial check-up Jake was taken by ambulance to the Liverpool hospital and taken straight to the intensive care unit. He died three days later at 2.40am.