Jeremy Hunt demands better leadership in NHS after scandal of errors

The figure was announced after it emerged that a cover-up over serious failings at the health watchdog stretched all the way to the top.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, revealing that there were 3,000 unnecessary deaths in 12 months, said it was time for a 'major rethink, a different kind of culture and leadership' as he confirmed the figures in a keynote speech in London.

He said the 'silent scandal of errors' needed to be tackled urgently, and also claimed that the current culture could be traced back to the scandal period at Stafford Hospital between 2005 and 2009 when poor care and neglect was systemic.

He was speaking after revelations that the former chief executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was implicated in the Morecambe Bay baby deaths cover-up.

Cynthia Bower, who was in charge of the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority between 2006 and 2008, during the period of the Stafford Hospital crisis, was present when the deletion of an internal review criticising the CQC was discussed.

Mr Hunt, addressing delegates in the capital today, said: "I pay tribute to the many NHS leaders who have refused to accept any level of patient harm as satisfactory or inevitable and are fighting hard to turn the tide.

"We must make sure this is reflected across the NHS. It is time for a major rethink – a different kind of culture and leadership, where staff are supported to do what their instincts and commitment to patients tell them. We must make sure that patients know where the buck stops and who is ultimately responsible for their care.

"And above all, we must listen more to NHS staff, so we can design systems that encourage them to act safely, whatever pressures they face. I want the NHS to be the world's safest health system.

"It has all of the tools to do this, and I believe it should aspire to nothing less."

In the wake of Mr Hunt's revelations, health officials claimed that the NHS topped the International Commonwealth Fund comparison on patient safety, beating France, Germany, Sweden, Norway and the United States. The health service sees nearly three million people every week, and around 0.4 per cent of those appointments end up with incidents of harm, while 0.003 per cent ended with a person's death.

"This is a tiny proportion of the total number of people treated," Mr Hunt said. "But even those figures amount to nearly half a million people harmed unnecessarily every year, and 3,000 people who lost their lives last year – not despite our best efforts, but because of failures in our efforts. "

International studies suggest that there is likely to be significant under-reporting of 'never events', according to officials.

Of those recorded in 2011-12, 70 patients were given 'wrong site' surgery, where the wrong part of the body or the wrong patient was operated on, and 41 people were given incorrect implants or prostheses.

Mr Hunt called for the NHS to become the first healthcare system in the world to publish information on the likelihood of a harm-free patient experience across every hospital in the country. Ms Bower was named in connection with the Morecambe Bay cover-up yesterday. Her deputy, Jill Finney, and media manager Anna Jefferson were both also present when the deletion was discussed, a CQC spokesman said.

Ms Bower said: "As chief executive of CQC, the buck stops with me, so I deeply regret any failings in the regulation of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust during my time in charge and any distress this has caused to relatives. As to the finding that there may have been a cover-up of a negative report, I gave no instruction to delete any such report. I have no note or recollection of such instruction being given.

Concerns about the maternity unit at Furness General Hospital in Cumbria came to light in 2008 but the CQC gave the Morecambe Bay trust, which runs the hospital, a clean bill of health in 2010.

In March 2011, Cumbria Police launched an investigation into a cluster of maternity deaths at the trust, including the death of Joshua Titcombe who died at nine days old at Furness General Hospital in 2008 after staff failed to spot and treat an infection.