Stafford Hospital death rates were 'not worrying'

Former Stafford Hospital chief executive Martin Yeates told Midlands health bosses high death rates at the hospital were nothing to worry about.

The public inquiry into standards of care at the hospital heard yesterday how Mr Yeates reassured the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority after the hospital was singled out over the high numbers of patient deaths.

The inquiry heard from Dr Rashmi Shukla, former medical director at the SHA, who said the matter was discussed at top level.

He said the authority was given a "verbal reassurance" from Stafford Hospital in 2007 when the death rates at the trust were first highlighted for being above the national average.

The hospital's death rates were later found to have been above average for more than 10 years. Between 400 to 1,200 people may have died as a result of poor care.

Dr Shukla told the inquiry officials from the health authority met with the management at Stafford Hospital to discuss the death rates in May, 2007.

The hospital said the high death rates were a mistake caused by incorrect recording of patient conditions, known as clinical coding.

She said: "The trust was specifically asked for and gave a verbal assurance that the trust had no concerns about either individual clinicians or the possibility of a systematic failure in relation to clinical care."

Asked whether it was Mr Yeates who had given that assurance she said: "I believe so." She said she would have expected Mr Yeates to have checked with his medical director and director of nursing to make sure there were no concerns.

Dr Shukla defended the authority's actions on the mortality figures when it emerged it commissioned a study to examine them.

Chairman Robert Francis QC asked her: "Why was your first reaction on receiving these figures to take a step which might be thought was designed to question them, rather than act on them?" She said the authority was trying not to undermine the figures but to ensure they were a reality.