Baby Peter died aged 17 months in August 2007 at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and their lodger, despite being on Haringey Council's child protection register.

He suffered a broken back and over 40 horrific injuries during a campaign of domestic violence despite having been seen more than 60 times by police, doctors and social workers.

Social workers and their bosses have been roundly condemned for not acting, and on Wednesday the healthcare watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), said there had been similar failure in the NHS bodies.

Peter was seen 34 times by health professionals from North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust and Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust. One doctor failed to spot that two days before his death, Peter had a broken back and thought he was just suffering from a cold.

'This is a story about the failure of basic systems,' said CQC Chief Executive Cynthia Bower.

'There were clear reasons to have concern for this child but the response was simply not fast enough or smart enough.' The report said there had been poor communication between health professionals and between social workers and police, meaning the consultant who saw Peter two days before his death had no contact with his social worker.

Staff did not always follow child protection procedures; there were staffing shortages; and poor recruitment practices meant some staff were inexperienced in child protection.

While measures have been taken to address many of the problems raised, many issues remain the CQC report said.

Some staff at North Middlesex Trust were still unsure about who was responsible for following up child protection cases, the attendance at child protection conferences was 'not good enough' and Haringey still suffered a shortage of health visitors and school nurses.

'There remain significant further steps that must be taken,' Bower said. 'We must get to a position where we can say everything possible is being done to prevent a recurrence.' She added a further review would assess Trusts across the country and warned they would take action if not enough was being done. -- REUTERS