GPs are failing to refer patients to Stafford Hospital due to concerns over standards of care, a public meeting was told.

A nurse sobbed as she told of “regularly” seeing patients dying “without dignity or respect” at Stafford Hospital.

A former Stafford Hospital chief has labelled evidence of poor care as “shaky” in a defiant appearance at a public inquiry into the scandal.

The man behind the Stafford Hospital scandal today broke his two-and-a-half year silence over the affair, claiming he thought of taking his own life.

England’s most senior nurse told the public inquiry into Stafford Hospital that nursing standards in the NHS have deteriorated.

Former Health Secretary Andy Burnham has admitted that errors allowed appalling standards of care at Stafford Hospital to go undetected – and blamed managers for their “cavalier attitude”.

Watchdogs called for all trainee nurses to be taken out of Stafford Hospital earlier this year over fears about the standard of training, it has been revealed.

Four out of five children treated at Stafford Hospital’s A&E department were left suffering in pain without medicine, a public inquiry has heard.

A successful prosecution of Stafford Hospital under health and safety laws was impossible, the Francis Inquiry has been told by Geoffrey Podger, chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Stafford Hospital could have been successfully prosecuted over the appalling care of hundreds of patients, it has been claimed.