Report slams sub-standard care at Staffordshire hospitals
Severe staff shortages, “appalling” emergency care and lack of equipment could have led to the needless deaths of hundreds of patients at a Midland Hospital Trust, a damning investigation has revealed.
Independent watchdog the Healthcare Commission has criticised Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Stafford and Cannock Hospitals, for significant failings in emergency healthcare, leadership and management.
The report states that there were deficiencies at “virtually every stage” in the care of people admitted as emergencies which led to higher than normal death rates and an estimated 400 deaths between 2005 and 2008.
A catalogue of problems from the time patients arrived in A&E to admission onto a surgical or medical ward.
Investigators found receptionists even carried out initial checks on patients at Stafford A&E due to lack of nurses and doctors, heart monitors were turned off because nurses did not know how to use them, there were not enough nurses to provide proper care to patients on wards, and the Trust board did not routinely discuss the quality of care.
A review of staffing levels found the trust was short 120 nurses - 17 needed in A&E, 30 in the surgical division and 77 on the medical wards.
The investigation also found that in 2006/07 the trust tried to save £10 million by losing more than 150 posts, including nurses, even though staffing levels were already low.
Sir Ian Kennedy, the Commission’s Chairman, said: “This is a story of appalling standards of care and chaotic systems for looking after patients. There were
