Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust Inquiry

Baroness Williams of Crosby Excerpts

Wednesday 6th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

As I think I said in my earlier response to the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, the registration of support workers is something that the Government will consider as part of their response to the Francis recommendations. We need to have well trained staff at all levels.

On the noble Baroness’s other point about ratios, I am sure that my colleagues in the Department of Health will reflect on what she said. Ultimately, decisions about staffing levels and so on need to be made locally, but I know that as part of this whole debate the department will be thinking in every way it can to try to make sure that all these sensible points are acted upon.

[Baroness Williams of Crosby]

My Lords—

[Lord Harris of Haringey]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Williams of Crosby]

My Lords, like many others, I am sure the House would like to ask the noble Lord the Leader of the House to pass on our appreciation of the very restrained and moving Statement by the Prime Minister which in many ways reflects his own experience of the National Health Service in respect of his son, which I shared in respect of the death last year in an NHS hospital of my son-in-law. One could not have asked for better treatment.

In some ways, the tragedy of Mid Staffs is precisely that it is one of the few things that have lowered trust in the NHS, and that is a very serious outcome. The many relatives who waited for month after month and year after year for some kind of justice—there are echoes of Hillsborough in that—felt that they were not being listened to, despite the agony that they were going through.

Let me very quickly say just a word about accountability. My only criticism of the Francis report, although I have not had the opportunity to read every word of it, revolves around that word “accountability”. Accountability has to go to the very top. It cannot stop half way. I need to say quite loudly that two gentlemen have something to answer for, if only to comment on the recommendations and see if they meet the difficulties that have arisen in Mid Staffs. The first is Sir David Nicholson, the chief executive of the NHS Commissioning Board, who was present in a very senior capacity. I am not trying to blame him, but to say that I think his advice on how to avoid what happened then would be very valuable. The other person was Secretary of State in the last year of the period which the Francis report covers and is the right honourable Mr Andrew Burnham. Many of us—

[Noble Lords]

Order!

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I think we should hear from the Minister.

[Baroness Williams of Crosby]

Many of us during the course of the debate were obliged to listen to a very great deal of what I might call Twitter propaganda, and I think it is only fair to say that Mr Burnham has a responsibility to respond to this report.

[A noble Lord]

Too long!

[Baroness Williams of Crosby]

I am going to continue, so noble Lords had better get used to it.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I think the sense of the House is that we would like to hear from the noble Lord the Leader of the House.

[Noble Lords]

Hear, hear!

[Baroness Williams of Crosby]

I shall complete my remarks.

[Noble Lords]

Order!

--- Later in debate ---

Baroness Williams of Crosby: I have much to comment about on this front, and I am going to finish my sentence. We all need to be responsible and accountable for making sure that no Mid Staffs ever happens again. That means that we may not pass the burden of responsibility to and fro. We all have to accept our common responsibility, and if that means abandoning party statements, so much the better.

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

I agree about the theme, which I think we have all accepted, that there is a common responsibility. One of the themes of the report is that we should not seek to single out individuals or particular organisations for risk of not seeing the bigger picture which, as my noble friend said, is that there is a common responsibility.