‘ONE by one, David Cameron has broken all the promises he made on the NHS. It is now struggling with his toxic medicine of spending cuts and reorganisation.’
This was the warning given yesterday by shadow health secretary Andy Burnham after Labour revealed a list of 17 hospitals judged by the Care Quality Commission to ‘not have enough staff to keep people safe and meet their health and welfare needs’.
Burnham continued: ‘Almost 7,000 nursing posts have been lost since David Cameron entered Downing Street. The public has a right to know if their local hospital is taking risks with staffing levels.
‘The government is doing its best to lay the blame for the ills of the NHS at the door of the nursing profession.
‘But nurses will not be able to provide the standards of care we all want to see when they are so overstretched and the wards so short-staffed.’
Unfortunately it was Labour that opened the door to this situation with its drive to foundation trusts that are required to be run as businesses.
The 2009 Health Commission report exposed how up to 1,200 patients lost their lives unnecessarily at Mid Staffs from 2005 to 2008, because the trust board was making £10m cuts by slashing staff in order to become a foundation trust.
The trust’s Stafford Hospital was running with 100 nurse vacancies while reducing a further 160 nurses.
There was a massive use of untrained health care assistants (HCAs) instead of trained nurses, and no consultant surgeon cover at night. Serious surgical emergencies requiring admission were being transported 17 miles to North Staffordshire Hospital.
The CQC named 17 hospitals on a list of 26 ‘health providers’ found to have inadequate staffing levels. The data has never before been made public.
The hospitals named were: Scarborough Hospital; Milton Keynes Hospital; Royal Cornwall Hospital; Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool; Queen’s Hospital, Romford; Stamford & Rutland Hospital; Southampton General Hospital; Croydon University Hospital; Bodmin Hospital, Cornwall; Northampton General Hospital; St Peter’s Hospital, Maldon; Queen Mary’s Hospital, London; Chase Farm Hospital, London; Westmorland General Hospital; Pilgrim Hospital, Leicestershire; St Anne’s House, East Sussex; and Princess Royal Hospital, West Sussex.
London Ambulance Service and eight mental health units were also warned about dangerous staffing levels.
They were: Ainslie and Highams Inpatient Facility, London; The Campbell Centre, Bedford; Forston Clinic, Dorset; The Cavell Centre, Peterborough; The Bradgate Mental Health Unit, Leicestershire; Avon and Wiltshire NHS Mental Health Trust; Blackberry Hill Hospital, Bristol; and Park House, Manchester.
It is feared that the Francis report into the disaster at Mid Staffordshire trust could be used to close Stafford hospital, and lead the way to the closure of scores more.
The trust is said to be £20m in deficit, and the Trust Special Administrator could be brought in under the ‘unsustainable provider regime’ – a mechanism introduced by the last Labour government – to dismantle it, following its use at South London Healthcare Trust.
The public inquiry carried out by Robert Francis QC, which sat for two years and cost £10m, is due to be brought out into the open in February, after repeated delays.
BMA member Anna Athow said yesterday: ‘It is clear the coalition is using the Francis report and the new CQC leadership to expand their offensive on the hospitals.
‘In reality, every hospital is being forced to make millions of “efficiency savings” cuts and cull hundreds of staff, so they are all at risk of closure or sell off.
‘The unions have to reply in kind with industrial action to defend every job and every service.
‘The whole population – residents, patients and campaign groups – has to get involved and come together in Councils of action to organise mass direct action and occupations, to keep the hospitals open and running.
‘The coalition does not want a universal health service. It has to be brought down.’