MP angers hospital deaths campaigner

Cure the NHS founder Julie Bailey has hit back at claims that the Francis Report "demolished" the mortality statistics relating to scandal-hit Stafford Hospital.

The Healthcare Commission suggested that hundreds of patients could have died as a result of poor care, based on the number of unexpected deaths.

But the inquiry led by Robert Francis QC found no reliable calculation to determine the number of deaths resulting from poor care.

Stafford MP David Kidney said this meant the widely-quoted mortality statistics suggesting hundreds of needless deaths had effectively been demolished, but Cure the NHS has hit back, branding his claim deeply offensive

.Campaign founder Mrs Bailey spoke out after meeting Mr Francis to discuss his inquiry.

She said she had received assurances from Mr Francis that it had not been his intention to discredit the mortality statistics.Mrs Bailey said: "Members of Cure the NHS, and members of this community, find Mr Kidney's statement deeply offensive.

"The report does not demolish the number of expected or reported deaths as set out in the evidence to the inquiry.

"Mr Francis was following the views of Professor Brian Jarman that conclusions on the cause of the death of an individual patient or number of patients cannot be drawn from the statistics themselves.

Mrs Bailey added: "The number of deaths expected and observed stands, the ratio stands and the appalling care stands.

"This formula has been used throughout the NHS for 10 years and now, because the Government doesn't like what the statistics are telling them, their ministers try to dismiss them. Just how low can this government go? Analysis is telling them thousands of people throughout the NHS are losing their lives unnecessarily and this government chooses to try and discredit the statistics."

Mrs Bailey added: "Instead of making our hospitals safe, they try to shoot the messenger."