Police must probe NHS deaths - Hunt

Feb 8 2013

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has urged police to investigate the hundreds of deaths put down to the Mid Staffordshire NHS scandal.

In the wake of the damning report into care failings at Stafford Hospital, he said it was "absolutely outrageous" that nobody had been "brought to book" for the premature deaths of up to 1,200 people.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said the police should look at the evidence already in the public domain.

"I think it's absolutely outrageous that potentially more than a thousand people lost their lives because of poor care and not a single person has been brought to book," he said.

"This was a public inquiry that was designed to help us understand why the system didn't pick up what went wrong but I think it is absolutely disgraceful with all those things happening, whether it is doctors, nurses or managers, nobody has been held to account."

Asked whether the information should be passed to the police, he added: "Well that evidence is in the public domain. And you know, it's there for the police - and it's there for the professional bodies, the GMC (General Medical Council) and the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) to look at and they should do that."

Mr Hunt stressed that it was not for him to say who was guilty and who was not.

"As a politician, I am not in a position to say this nurse is guilty, this nurse is not, and all these things have to be decided at arm's length following due process. This is about people's careers and livelihood and there has to be fairness of course," he said.

Robert Francis QC, who led the inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, uncovered a "disaster" in the standards of basic care and medical treatment for some of the most vulnerable and elderly patients.

Mr Francis said there were failings at every level of the NHS and that the culture among healthcare staff must change. He said: "What we need to avoid is yet another wholesale reorganisation of abolishing organisations and creating new ones. This is about how people behave when they go to work and their ability to raise concerns and be honest about what's going on in their hospitals."