Concerns over the number of deaths at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital have sparked an inquiry, it emerged today.

A higher than average mortality rate of patients at the hospital was among the reasons that the NHS watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, launched an investigation into care there.

It was fears over the number of deaths at Stafford Hospital which sparked the crisis in 2008 that is now being investigated by a public inquiry.

A CQC report last week on New Cross found it was not meeting some essential standards and care “was not always safe.”

It was revealed today that the report was prompted by high death rates among elderly patients with lung disease and those with blood poisoning or septicaemia.

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