10 years after her mother's death, campaigner Julie Bailey says NHS still has a long way to go after Stafford Hospital scandal

It is a story I have told many times over the last 10 years and while patient safety has certainly been put on the agenda the sad fact is that so little has actually changed.

With a workforce crises looming, many fear including myself that we will return to those dark days of Mid Staffs where patients were forgotten and balancing the books, the priority.

Losing my mum hit hard and still does. She just shouldn’t have suffered the way she did. I still have so many unanswered questions, something I share with thousands of families who have also seen loved ones suffer poor NHS care.

The problem is when you don’t get those answers you find it difficult to ever get over that loss. "Move on,” people say. But how can you move on when you don’t even know what happened, when you don’t even know what you are moving on from?

It is not unusual for the process of an NHS investigation to be as traumatic as the event itself. There has been no real development of the NHS complaints and investigations process since the Mid Staffs scandal was first uncovered. This must change.

Mistakes happen. Medicine is a risky and often experimental field. But we must not be afraid to do all we can to eliminate those mistakes and identify the reasons why they occur. A thorough investigation should recognise what went wrong, before exploring all possible solutions. Once a suitable solution has been found this should be shared with the wider NHS to foster a culture of growth and learning. The NHS does not do this well. Neither does it do listening to patients well, to find out what went wrong in the first place.

I would not deny that some progress has been made. In the Mid Staffs Public Inquiry Robert Francis found a culture of only talking about the positives rather than any critical analysis. Those days have gone. And this is a significant development – as any addict will tell you, the first step towards recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Mid Staffs put patient safety firmly on the agenda and I must commend the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, for his commitment on this issue. It is a cause he has pursued with far more vigour than any of his predecessors.

One recommendation I have consistently proposed is a level playing field when it comes to regulation. We have regulators for nurses and doctors but not managers. It was managers who made most of the decisions that led to the harm of patients at Mid Staffs, yet unaccountable to any regulator.

The recent failings at Southern Health Foundation Trust lead me to believe that we still have a long way to go. Governors at the hospital tried to speak out but were labelled as trouble makers, just as I was in 2007. Once again it was families who had to raise concerns and battle to be heard.

The NHS is much more transparent and open than it once was. In 2007 Health Ministers only wanted to hear good news. Some say we have always had a seven-day service but I know differently. Today we expect one.

My time is now spent trying to help people through the complaints system. I advocate for those unable to navigate their way through the system of NHS complaints, the system that often drives people to despair. I work as an independent patient complaint consultant, offering the benefit of my experience to families who have nowhere else to turn.

Changing a culture is a daunting process but it will not happen unless individuals are prepared to stand up and fight for what is right.

I have dedicated my life to helping those people and I am filled with hope that so many have the courage to stand up for what they believe in. Together we can create the health service we all deserve, but let’s get on and do it.

• This is an abridged version of an article which first appeared at www.curethenhs.co.uk/10-year-anniversary/