Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust fails in care for patients

On the 6th of November 2013, the Francis inquiry was set up in order to investigate the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust with its “failure of the NHS system.” It looked at the neglect that patients suffered under the midland hospital and the inability of the NHS to solve the problem earlier.

Up to 600 patients at Mid Staffordshire hospital had died as a result of poor conditions and lack of professional treatment from members of staff. What began in 2005 – 2009, those in charge of the hospital had claimed they were unaware of the suffering of patients that family members left under their care.

When looking into the hospital’s conditions, Health, and Social Care correspondent, Victoria Macdonald said: “we found inhumane treatment, patients left on soiled sheets, staff who showed no compassion.”

Stafford Hospital sign credited by: Channel 4

Speaking to family members who lost loved ones, Deb Hazeldine said: “My mum had so many hospital-borne infections that she had to be buried in a body bag. The last memory I had of her was her head protruding from a body bag.”

Jeff Guest, when talking about his wife, said: “The bed was filthy. They should have known that she was ordered to be cleaned.”

Professor Sir Brian Jarman at Imperial College is an international expert on hospital performance who developed an early warning system for unexpectedly high death rates. He published reports since 2001 so those that would have known about it would have read the newspapers

Jarman said, “In 2006 their death rate was 27% above the average.”

The Health Authority told the recent Mid Staffs inquiry that prior to 2008 that they had not been aware of the mortality alerts. However, Professor Jarman opposed this statement as he “sent letters to the chief executive of the trust from July 2007 onwards that they had high death rates of certain procedures and diagnosis.”

Julie Bailey started her organisation ‘Cure the NHS’ after the death of her mother as a result of poor hospital care. Bailey stated: “she overcame the illness and was ready to go home but was dropped by an untrained member of staff.”

Picture of Julie Bailey credited by: Stoke on Trent live

Julie, who is a café owner in Stafford was able to form a group of supporters who had lost relatives to similar circumstances as her mother. “I never lost sight of what was important and that was patient safety.”

When speaking to Jeremy Hunt MP, he quoted that “the prime minister said the quality of care is the single most important thing that’s looked at.”

In response to the demand for the CEO of the NHS to resign, he said “David Nicholson has apologised for the fact that he along with many thousands of other people in the NHS management didn’t recognise what was going on” and that “Robert Francis says very clearly that the wrong thing to do on a situation like this is to find a scapegoat.”

Despite this Bailey and others are still in favour of the CEO leaving and he claims, “Sir David has been part of the failings, he’s not part of the solution, and that’s why we’re calling for his resignation.”

Robert Francis QC presented his findings on the scandal and summarised that “the trust was betrayed” due to the “failure of the NHS system” to not provide “caring and compassionate nursing”