Families left in the dark over care of patients

Victims and relatives of patients who suffered appalling care at Stafford Hospital could be unaware of what happened to them, it has emerged.

Stafford Hospital medical director Dr Manjit Obhrai appeared before the Francis Inquiry yesterday where he admitted that details of what are called 'Serious Incidents' were not passed on to the patient or family involved before 2010.

Serious Incidents are those that involve an event resulting in serious harm or even death for a hospital patient.

Dr Obhrai told the public inquiry relatives or the patients themselves would not be routinely told if what had happened was being investigated as a serious incident.

It could mean there are families in the Stafford area who have no idea their loved ones died as a result of poor care at the hospital.

The public inquiry has heard in the past former bosses at the hospital did not report Serious Incidents to the hospital board.

Only in recent years, since the publication of the damning Healthcare Commission report in March 2009, have such incidents been taken seriously at a higher level.

Dr Obhrai told the inquiry yesterday when he arrived at the trust in 2009 there was no evidence that families were being told about Serious Incidents affecting patients.

He said it was now trust policy to inform relatives of such events.

"What was not happening on a regular basis was that patients were kept abreast of what was going on, whether their incident had been reported as a Serious Incident," he said.

"The policy was altered to make sure that patients are in the loop continuously."

He added: "It was implicit that patients were informed, but it was not explicit. This new policy makes it explicit that the patients must be within the loop."

Dr Obhrai said the new process for reporting Serious Incidents had led to an increase in reports.

He added it was important that the trust learned lessons from each case.