Hospital deaths anger leaves Stafford campaign critical
Campaigners have rejected Andy Burnham’s latest attempt to suppress concerns about accountability at Mid-Staffordshire hospital.
A follow-up inquiry announced by the health secretary into the foundation hospital was dismissed as inadequate by Cure The NHS, a group of bereaved relatives of those who died as a result of the hospital’s poor performance.
Last March, a Care Quality Commission report found that the trust had “lost sight of its real priorities” in its race to become a foundation hospital. Its “systemic problems” with emergency care caused up to 145 deaths a year.
Cure The NHS’ members are united by “grief and frustration”, one told politics.co.uk, as they seek to bring those responsible to account.
The Department of Health instigated a review led by Robert Francis which Mr Burnham has admitted makes “shocking reading”. Large parts of it were held in private, leading to anger from campaigners who feel questions remain about their loved ones’ deaths. The government says many hospital staff would not have given evidence if they had been forced to do so in public.
After a lengthy process Mr Burnham has finally committed to holding a second inquiry looking at why the failures at Mid-Staffs were not detected sooner.
“All of us are, I know, united in our endeavours to help this community to reconnect with a hospital and a service that they were let down by,” he wrote in a letter dated April 8th to Stafford’s Labour MP David Kidney.
“There is still a long way to go, but I hope you – and they – feel we are making some positive progress.”
Cure The NHS said they were “deeply concerned” by the proposed inquiry. They want it to be held under the Inquiries Act 2005, enabling it to compel witnesses to give evidence under oath in public.
That call has received support from shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, who visited the group in Stafford on Thursday.
“The only solution is the greatest openness and transparency,” he said. “We have got to shed light on these dark tunnels.”
Mr Lansley added on his visit that all present hoped Mid-Staffordshire was the worst example of its kind in the NHS’ history, before adding: “Unless we have a sense of confidence the whole culture in the NHS is one of exposing problems, how do we know for sure?”
He pledged that under a Conservative government all NHS staff would be given a right, written into their contract, to alert NHS watchdogs if their hospital was failing patients.
Regardless of who wins the general election, West Midlands Strategic Health Authority has been asked by Mr Burnham to commission a clinical review on the “optimal configuration” for services in the Staffordshire area.
The review, which will report to the Department of Health by the summer, increases the likelihood that Mid-Staffordshire hospital will have services removed from it – in addition to having its foundation hospital status stripped.
Unmitigated anger among Staffordshire residents could yet prove decisive in the local general election campaign. Mr Kidney is defending a 2,121 majority against Tory challenger Jeremy Lefroy in the Stafford seat.
“It really makes one weep and make one want to make sure this can’t happen again in a civilised country, never mind a civilised hospital,” Mr Kidney said.
“I really think for the media the calls for a full public inquiry are a very easy story to report. It does get a lot of people’s attention. Not a lot gets attention about the changes which are being made in the hospital to make it better than it was.”
He claimed his interventions had helped the hospital receive nearly all of the £5 million funding promised by former health secretary Alan Johnson.
Mr Lefroy appears to be already preparing for his work as Mr Kidney’s successor.
“The job of the next MP is to really work with the hospital to make sure it is the best it can be,” he said.
