Councillors 'timid' in scrutiny of Stafford Hospital

Councillors were too "timid" in their scrutiny of Stafford Hospital, a public inquiry into standards has been told.

Roger Dobbing, the son-in-law of a patient who died at the hospital, regularly attended Stafford Borough Council's health scrutiny committee during 2009 as a member of Cure the NHS.

Giving evidence to the Francis Inquiry yesterday, Mr Dobbing said councillors sitting on the committee had let down the community that had elected them.

He said the committee, made up of 11 borough councillors, was a "talking shop" and "very polite" with managers from the hospital.

He said the style of questioning of hospital bosses who appeared before the committee was "very weak".

"They would ask a question, they would be given a response but they would not go to any greater depth," he said. "In general the overview and scrutiny committee, the way it was operating, it had no teeth."

He added:"It was a very timid approach by the committee to oversee what is going on within the local trust." He described the former chairman Councillor Philip Jones as "far too nice a person to head up a scrutiny committee".

Mr Dobbing's 81-year-old mother-in-Law Joan Giles died in January 2009 after receiving chemotherapy following a cancer diagnosis at Stafford Hospital.

After her death no trace of cancer was found but a reaction from the drugs she received had caused a complication with her heart.

Mr Dobbing told the inquiry that despite widespread concern about the hospital in 2009 the committee failed to challenge the trust or hold it to account.