Damning report on patient deaths at Mid Staffordshire hospitals

Mar 17 2009 by Alison Dayani, Birmingham Mail

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 revealed today.

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 stated 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.

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.

The trust was short of 120 nurses – 17 in A&E, 30 in the surgical division and 77 on the medical wards.

In 2006/07 the trust tried to save £10million 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.

“Patients will have suffered and some of them will have died as a result.

“There were too few doctors and nurses, vital equipment was not available when needed, patients did not receive the care they deserved, and the trust had no systems in place to spot when things were going wrong.”

Trust chief executive Martin Yeates and chairman Toni Brisby resigned two weeks ago.

Trust chiefs today apologised for the problems but said they had increased staff and now had lower mortality rates than the average NHS hospital.