DH) Department of Health responds to Healthcare Commission investigation at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

The Department of Health today responded to the Healthcare Commission investigation at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said:

"I would like to thank the Healthcare Commission for their extensive investigation and the thoroughness of their work.

"On behalf of the Government and the NHS I would like to apologise to the patients and families of patients who have suffered because of the poor standards of care at Stafford Hospital.

"There was a complete failure of management to address serious problems and monitor performance. This led to a totally unacceptable failure to treat emergency patients safely and with dignity.

"NHS staff working hard across the country to provide excellent care will be appalled by this report and I would urge every manager and clinician to digest its findings to ensure that these events are never repeated.

"I have set in train the following course of action:

"Local patients will want absolute certainty that Stafford Hospital has been transformed since this investigation began. To that end I have, jointly with Monitor, asked Professor Sir George Alberti, National Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care to lead an independent review of the trust's current A & E services.

"I have asked the National Quality Board to ensure that the early warning system for clinical underperformance is working effectively across the whole of the NHS. The Board was established to bring about improvements in all areas of patient care and is made up of clinical experts as well as independent representatives of Royal Colleges and patient groups. I have also asked Dr David Colin-Thome, National Director for Primary Care & Medical Adviser, to review the standards of care and treatment at the trust between 2002 and 2007, the period before the Healthcare Commission began its investigation, to determine how the obvious failings were allowed to continue for so long.

"We cannot know exactly how many patients were affected by the poor care described in the report. The relatives of people who died in Stafford Hospital between 2005 and 2008 will rightly have questions that must be answered.

"The new leadership of the Trust will respond to every request from relatives and carry out an independent review of their case notes. This will be an essential step "to put relatives' minds at rest and to close this regrettable chapter in the hospital's past.

"The Healthcare Commission did its job in getting behind the initial reaction of the Trust that the problems were statistical rather than real. We must now do our job in ensuring that patients in Mid Staffs can have confidence in a local hospital that puts patient care above all other considerations."