NHS: Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Lord Cormack Excerpts

Monday 11th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cormack]

My Lords, I am particularly grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Patel. For 40 years I was a Staffordshire Member of Parliament, and for the first 27 of those years, the Stafford Hospital looked after a large part of my constituency. It was a good hospital; I do not remember receiving a single serious complaint in those 27 years, and I visited regularly. In 1997 we had boundary changes, and from then on only a handful—relatively speaking—of my constituents went to Stafford; the others went to Wolverhampton, Walsall and Dudley.

I was devastated when I, as chairman of the Staffordshire MPs, took colleagues whose constituents had been affected, to see successive Secretaries of State. The terrible, tragic stories would have moved the stoniest of hearts. It is an indictment going far beyond Stafford that in his report, Mr Francis had to put at the top of his list of recommendations what we should all automatically take for granted: that it is the duty of the health service to put patients first. We should not need to be told that.

In his report, Mr Francis makes a number of comments about leadership. He recommends that there should be a staff college—I hope that my noble friend will agree that that will happen. He also talks about governors being given proper training. He is not quite so explicit when it comes to board members, and I did raise that subject when we had a brief question and answer when the Statement was given a few weeks ago. Everyone concerned with the running of the hospital, and with being part of the leadership needs to have proper and adequate training for that role.

I have to touch on a rather contentious matter, because the fact is, if leadership is going to be effective, it has to command confidence and respect, and it has to enjoy the support—not merely official, but explicit and implicit—of all those people over whom leadership is being exercised. There is, of course, a famous phrase that the buck has to stop somewhere. One has to recognise that during part of this terrible period, Sir David Nicholson was in charge in the Midlands. We have to accept that he is the chief executive of the National Health Service now. I have to ask the question, and I think it would be wrong if this question was not raised in the Chamber this evening: can we have trust and confidence in Sir David Nicholson to deliver a health service that is truly worthy of our great country? I believe that he should be examining his position very carefully. This happened on his watch. We are told that 1,200, or thereabouts, died unnecessarily. Somebody, Charles Moore I think it was, wrote in the Telegraph the other day about the Prime Minister going to Amritsar where fewer than 400 people were killed; 1,200 died during that period. I have to say to your Lordships: is this really the man to carry forward our health service for the next few years?