NHS: Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Monday 11th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

My Lords, this has been an excellent debate. No one reading this report or its predecessor could be in any doubt about the suffering caused to many patients and their families by neglect and the lack of a caring attitude. I want to use my brief four minutes to make one plea to the Government, which is for a considered response. Mr Francis has produced a very large report, which I suspect in reality will be read by very few people, with a huge number of recommendations. I am afraid that he has fallen into the trap of so many inquiries, where instead of going for a few focused recommendations we have this huge canvas to consider.

Like the noble Lord, Lord Patel, my great fear is that we may be in danger of creating a massive bureaucratic edifice in dealing with what essentially was a failure in one trust. It is worth repeating that Mr Francis said that what happened in Mid Staffordshire was caused by a serious failure on the part of a provider trust, which did not listen sufficiently to its patients and staff or ensure the correction of deficiencies brought to the trust’s attention. Like my noble friend Lord Warner, I find it difficult to see the threads between what happened in Mid Staffordshire and the general attack that seems to be taking place on the NHS.

I understand the points made about whether the target-based performance approach impacted on quality of care and, indeed, on the involvement of clinicians in their organisation. I defend targets. I remind noble Lords that in 1997 we had the spectre of very long waiting lists. There was a patient charter that said patients should be treated within 18 months—even that was not being met. The result of the target approach has been to reduce waiting time limits to 18 weeks. When one had long waiting times, patients suffered and some people died. I do not think we should ignore it.

Equally, I have listened to the very eloquent speeches made by noble Lords tonight, who have spoken of the changes that need to be made in the NHS. They are valid comments. However, I am struck by the fact that noble Lords have really rather ignored the reality of everyday life in the NHS at the moment; the imposition of another massive structural change and an unprecedented squeeze on resources.

I declare an interest as a foundation trust chair and can say that, seen from the front line at the moment, we have a system under extraordinary pressure. Patient numbers are up, primary care accessibility is problematic and cuts in local government services reduce their ability to take patients out of hospitals and into their homes or care homes. Everywhere systems are under huge pressure. I think it is grossly unfair to ignore those pressures while, as the Secretary of State has consistently done in speech after speech, pointing out to the NHS its alleged deficiencies, without acknowledging the impact of the resource cuts or the uncertainties of the changes being brought about. As my noble friend Lord Warner pointed out, they will do nothing to deal with the big issue we all face, which is the number of frail elderly in our hospitals who ought not to be there.

Therefore, my plea to the noble Earl, Lord Howe, is that rather than thinking that the Government have to respond to each of those recommendations, they think seriously about the essential leadership they can give to allow for caring attitudes to be free in the health service, and to ensure that impossible pressures are not put on the system, from which it can only fail.