Five hospital trusts are to be investigated over high death rates after a scathing report which laid bare the “disaster” of Stafford Hospital.
NHS Commissioning Board medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh is to launch an immediate investigation into five trusts which had higher-than-average death rates for the last two years.
The news follows the publication of the Francis Report, which highlighted the “appalling and unnecessary suffering of hundreds of patients” at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2009.
Patients were left for hours sitting in their own faeces, food and drink was left out of reach, and hygiene was so poor that relatives had to clean toilets themselves.
Prime Minister David Cameron apologised for the “truly dreadful” mistreatment and neglect at the trust.
Speaking in the Commons after the 1,782-page report was released, Mr Cameron announced a raft of changes designed to ensure any future failures in NHS organisations are detected and dealt with quickly.
He ordered the creation of the post of chief inspector of hospitals, who will have responsibility for a regime of inspections.
Mr Cameron also said changes will be made to the failure regime for NHS trusts to ensure the suspension of a board can be triggered by failures in care, and not just financial failings as at present.
Patients and their relatives will be invited to say if they would recommend treatment at their hospital to their friends and families, and the results will be published, he added.
“I would like to apologise to the families of all those who suffered from the way the system allowed this horrific abuse to go unchecked and unchallenged for so long,” Mr Cameron said.
“On behalf of the Government, and indeed our country, I am truly sorry.”
Mr Cameron announced that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will be writing to the bodies responsible for standards of doctors and nurse, to ask why nobody had been struck off as a result of the failings uncovered in Staffordshire.
The families of those who suffered in the care failings called for NHS chief Sir David Nicholson and Royal College of Nursing chief executive Peter Carter to resign over the scandal.
Julie Bailey, who set up campaign group Cure The NHS after her mother, Bella Bailey (86) died at the scandal-hit hospital in 2007, said: “We want resignations.
“We are going nowhere. We have lost hundreds of lives within the NHS, we want accountability.”
Mr Cameron’s official spokesman said the Prime Minister had full confidence in Sir David.
The trusts to be investigated are Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.