Jeremy Hunt axes NHS trust after death 'scandals'

AN NHS trust where hundreds of patients died needlessly was abolished yesterday.
 
AXED: Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt closed the NHS trust after public inquiry 
 

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt made the dramatic move after the Mid Staffordshire organisation was slammed by a public inquiry last year.

It found the trust guilty of causing the “appalling and unnecessary suffering of hundreds of people” which resulted in up to 1,200 deaths.

Patients at Stafford Hospital had been left lying in urine and excrement for days and were so thirsty they drank water from vases.

The Francis Inquiry also revealed staff had handed patients the wrong medication or sent them home with life-threatening conditions.

Break

Tory Government Minister Mr Hunt announced yesterday he would break up the trust.

He said people had “suffered too much and for too long under a system which ignored appalling failures of care in their local hospital”.

Although both Stafford and Cannock Chase hospitals will stay open, the decision means key services will be moved to nearby centres.

Mr Hunt added: “The changes will secure the safe and high quality services the people of Stafford deserve, having endured years of uncertainty and failures in care.”

The Francis report said the “appalling” failings were caused by “a lack of care, compassion, humanity and leadership”.

It followed a 2009 investigation by the Healthcare Commission, which found between 400 and 1,200 more people had died at Stafford Hospital than would normally be expected.