12 October 2011
Despite being at the centre of a highly critical
public inquiry in March 2009, when the Healthcare Commission criticised care and treatment being provided at Stafford Hospital, the Accident & Emergency Department at the hospital is facing further criticism from the
Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an unannounced visit to the department by its inspectors in September this year. The CQC has issued Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust with a formal warning after inspectors found there were too few staff on duty to ensure patients' welfare was being upheld.
The original inquiry into standards of care at Stafford Hospital estimated that between 400 to 1200 people had died unnecessarily between 2005 and 2008 due to the “appalling” standards of care provided at the Hospital and detailed many stories of patient abuse and neglect. Leigh Day & Co has successfully secured significant sums of compensation for over 120 elderly clients and their families who suffered from neglect, abuse and horrific standards of care.
Following the recent inspection, Andrea Gordon, regional director for CQC in the West Midlands and East Midlands said "insufficient action" had been taken to completely address staffing issues.
She said: "We will be making another unannounced visit to the hospital shortly and, when we do, we will expect the trust to be able to demonstrate it has made the required and sustainable improvements.
If we find enough progress has still not been made, we won't hesitate to use our legal powers to protect the people who use this service."
Human rights solicitor
Emma Jones, who represented many of the Stafford Hospital families, said:
“It was a very disappointing to learn that fresh concerns about the standards of care at Stafford Hospital have arisen. Following the publication of the first Inquiry report we were hopeful that all the necessary changes would have been made. We have now settled 120 claims against Stafford General Hospital (SGH) for the way in which patients were treated, some of those claims did concern the way in which patients were treated in the A & E Department. Part of each settlement was an apology which acknowledged the particular failings in each case. Our concern is that if the CQC continue to find failings at SGH then other patients may suffer.”
If you would like to speak to a solicitor please contact
Emma Jones on
020 7650 1200.
Information was correct at time of publishing. See terms and conditions for further details.