Midland MP calls for end to creation of foundation hospitals
Mar 23 2009 by Jonathan Walker, Birmingham Post
Controversial hospital reforms which contributed to the shocking failings at Mid Staffordshire Hospital should be ended immediately, according to a West Midlands MP.
Rob Marris (Lab Wolverhampton South West) urged ministers to end the creation of new foundation hospitals, which are independent of NHS control.
New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton is in the process of applying for foundation status, but Mr Marris said patients would benefit if it was allowed to concentrate simply on providing treatment.
The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs New Cross, received a glowing report from the Healthcare Commission last October, praising it for an “excellent” service.
But last week’s Healthcare Commission report on Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Stafford and Cannock Hospitals, found that its decision to apply for foundation status had contributed to severe failings in medical care which may have caused the unnecessary deaths of more than 400 patients.
The trust’s board focused on “marketing and public relations” and saving money in an effort to help the bid succeed, said the Healthcare Commission.
The Commission warned: “The board claimed that its top priority was the safety of patients. However, even though clinical problems were well known, and the trust declared a financial surplus in 2006/07, it did not seek to redress the staffing problem it had exacerbated by reducing the number of nurses.
“The evidence suggests that the top priority for the trust was the achievement of foundation trust status.”
Mr Marris, whose father, Charles Marris, was an NHS radiologist at New Cross Hospital, urged health secretary Alan Johnson to end the reforms in the NHS.
He said: “The NHS overall does a great job. Stafford hospital is just a few miles from my constituency, and I am outraged at what has happened.
“We have too many non-executive directors who are accountants, we have trust boards that are unbalanced, and we have too many senior managers in the NHS who are incompetent and not being fired.”
He asked Mr Johnson: “Will he assure me that he and his department will abandon the distraction of foundation trust status, which Wolverhampton is about to go through?”
Mr Marris said he was not calling for the abolition of existing foundation trusts as this would mean yet more re-organisation for the hospitals involved, but he did want to see the scheme bought to an end for those hospitals which did not yet have foundation status.
Replying in the House of Commons, Mr Johnson told him: “He is falling into the trap of equating Stafford with everywhere else. There are 115 foundation trust hospitals that do a terrific job and whose standards are very high.
“They are part of the NHS, but it is quite right that they should have that extra freedom if they prove worthy of it. The important thing is that it should not only be financial competence that determines whether they are worthy of that status; it should also be their very important focus on patient care.”
Foundation hospitals were introduced by Tony Blair’s government. Foundation members, who can include nearby residents, patients and staff, elect governors to oversee the hospital.
