Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

William Cash Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I congratulate the right hon. Lady on the extremely good report that she produced. I hope she will not find herself in a position of wanting to complain to me about the way in which I have implemented her report on complaints, because we intend to take it extremely seriously. She knows that I basically accept everything she said in it, although we will have to work carefully on the implementation of some things to make sure we get them right. She highlights one of the most fundamental problems. Probably the biggest problem is that some hospitals treat their complaints procedure as a process rather than something that they can learn from. Every NHS patient whom I have met who has had problems only ever says the same thing. They just want to know that the NHS will learn from what has gone wrong. That is all that they are interested in.

The point that the right hon. Lady makes is a very important one. People do sometimes feel that it is them against the system, and taking on a big establishment that might be well funded and is not really interested in hearing what they have to say is a very lonely process. It is vital that everyone who wants it can get independent support. One thing that we will be requiring is a sign, prominently displayed in every ward of every hospital, telling people, first, how they can make a complaint, and secondly, how if they want it they can get independent help and support. That could be a very good role for the new healthwatch organisations, but it may not be them in all cases, so most importantly, we will insist that people everywhere can access that independent help.

[Mr William Cash (Stone) (Con)]

Did my right hon. Friend hear my constituent, Debra Hazeldine, this morning on the “Today” programme, with a harrowing description of the way in which her mother was let down and died in Stafford hospital? I agreed with everything she said. Does he acknowledge that, although my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister listened, after correspondence and meetings with him, to my repeated calls and motions for the setting up of an inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005, which the Prime Minister set up and which has led to a complete shake-up, not only of Mid Staffs but the entire health service, successive Labour Secretaries of State in the last Government disgracefully and repeatedly refused to agree to such an inquiry, and that but for our determined campaign with Cure the NHS, and in particular Julie Bailey, Debra Hazeldine and Ken Lownds and his campaign for zero harm, the 2005 Act inquiry would never have taken place and the Francis report would never have been produced, with all its beneficial consequences, in the Secretary of State’s hands, for the NHS in the national interest? When will the debate take place on this report on the Floor of the House in Government time?