Stafford Hospital has had more than 2,700 “near miss” incidents since April this year – it has emerged.

The incidents do not include where patients have come to harm but involve issues reported by hospital staff as potential problems.

But bosses at the hospital, which is trying to recover from revelations earlier this year of hundreds of needless deaths and poor care standards, reckon it is a good sign that staff are speaking up.

For the first three months of this financial year, Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust had 1,434 adverse incidents reported.

This fell to 1,318 in the second quarter bringing the total number of near misses to 2,752. The top five areas raised include 176 slips or falls, 129 about medication, 125 on communication, 106 on staffing and 72 warnings on clinical care.

Chief executive of the trust Antony Sumara stressed these incidents were “near misses” adding: “You want that number to be high because it shows the staff are willing to report concerns.”