Care worsens at inquiry hospitals
Basildon is one of five trusts where alarms were first raised as far back as April 2010 (Nick Ansell)
STANDARDS of care at 14 NHS hospitals under investigation for high death rates
are deteriorating, according to official statistics.
Latest figures on staffing levels, hospital-acquired infections, cancelled
operations and staff morale suggest the trusts at the centre of a
government-commissioned inquiry are performing worse now than they were in
They show that rates of the potentially fatal conditions MRSA and C difficile,
linked to poor hygiene, have shot up in many of the hospitals concerned,
while the percentage of staff witnessing potentially harmful errors,
near-misses or other troubling incidents at some hospitals has also risen.
Last night patient groups said the 14 trusts had been given long enough to
correct years of substandard care. Julie Bailey, the campaigner who exposed
neglect at Stafford hospital and who founded the pressure group Cure the
NHS, said: “I suspect that we will see a bit of a whitewash and that