Neglect all over NHS, Francis Inquiry told

Appalling neglect on wards at Stafford Hospital has been repeated at hospitals across the country, affecting as many as 1.2 million patients, a charity has warned.

The Patients Association gave evidence to the Francis Inquiry yesterday on the final day of evidence before Christmas. Kieran Mullan, head of engagement and strategy at the charity, told the inquiry he had seen examples of bad care, similar to the stories that have been told by patients and relatives in Stafford, up and down the country.

He urged the inquiry to examine patient safety across the NHS and to come up with a new system of regulation which would make hospital managers and frontline staff accountable.

Mr Mullan said the charity had consistently received accounts of "very poor care, particularly of elderly patients".

He added complaints focused on "neglect of what we would consider essential nursing care; help with eating and drinking, help with toileting care, help with personal hygiene, pain relief, those kinds of issues that we think are self-evidently the minimal aspect of care you would expect."

He said hospitals could not be viewed as single entities with managers responsible for care but rather as individual wards with good or bad clinical teams.

He said the Patients Association estimated as many as 1.2m patients had received poor care over six years from 2002 to 2008.

The figure was based on patient surveys.

Mr Mullan criticised the actions of NHS regulators such as the Care Quality Commission, Monitor and the Strategic Health Authority and the Department of Health for failing to see obvious clues to problems at Stafford Hospital and doing nothing about them.

He said: "There were pieces of information in different parts of the system that were not being shared.

By Shaun Lintern