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Julie Bailey: "We should have a safe system in our hospitals"
Fundamental changes to the way NHS staff are trained are expected to be recommended by an inquiry into hundreds of deaths at Stafford Hospital.
The Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times say it will call for poor managers to be replaced, and for better staff training.
The inquiry probed a period between 2005 and 2009, when hundreds died as a result of treatment at the hospital.
The Department of Health said the newspaper reports were speculation.
Stafford Hospital said the "terrible care" received during that period was not representative of the care patients now received at the hospital.
'Culture of fear'The inquiry, established by the coalition in 2010 and chaired by Robert Francis QC, sat for 139 days, cost £10m and considered about a million pages of evidence.
It was prompted by a 2009 Healthcare Commission (HC) report, which listed a catalogue of failings including receptionists assessing patients arriving at A&E and a shortage of nurses and senior doctors.
"Start Quote
End Quote Jeremy Hunt MP Health SecretaryPatients must never be treated as numbers but as human beings, indeed human beings at their frailest and most vulnerable"
Managers were found to have been distracted by targets and cost-cutting, and regulators were accused of failing to pick up problems quickly enough, despite warnings from staff and patients.
The inquiry looked not just at Stafford Hospital, but at the way the NHS as a whole is managed. Its findings are due to be published later this month.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, it will deliver a damning verdict on the entire NHS.
It says it will describe a "culture of fear" in which pressure was piled on staff to put the demands of managers before the needs of patients.
The newspaper claims the report will call for greater regulation of NHS management after "systemic" failings, and an overhaul of training for nurses and health assistants.
Timeline
- May 2008: HC begins its investigation into unusually high death rates
- Oct 2008: HC demands Stafford hospital takes immediate action to improve its A&E department
- 3 Mar 2009: Hospital chief exec Martin Yeates and chairman Toni Brisby resign days before HC report published
- 18 Mar 2009: HC report is published. Labour's health secretary Alan Johnson apologies for hospital's failing and establishes two independent investigations
- 6 Jun 2010: Following public campaigning, David Cameron launches the first public inquiry in Stafford hospital
- 20 Jul 2010: Robert Francis QC holds first hearing
- 8 Nov 2010: Mr Francis makes his opening statment and the inquiry begins
- 1 Dec 2011: The inquiry ends
It also claims about 41 doctors and 29 nurses working at the hospital have escaped serious punishment, despite complaints being lodged with their professional bodies.
The Sunday Times says the report will recommend a statutory "duty of candour" which would oblige hospitals to inform patients or their relatives when treatment has gone wrong.
It says the inquiry will recommend that hospitals which cover up mistakes by doctors and nurses should be fined and even closed down in some cases.
'Change of culture'Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Hunt said the events at Stafford represented "the most shocking betrayal of NHS founding values in its history".
"We need proper accountability from those running NHS institutions. It is tough and often thankless being an NHS manager; despite which most do an excellent job.
"Most of all we need a change of culture. Patients must never be treated as numbers but as human beings, indeed human beings at their frailest and most vulnerable."
He pledged to introduce a system of patient feedback - which would be published - whereby every hospital in-patient will be asked whether they would recommend the care they received to family or friends.
Personal stories: Deb Hazeldine
Deb Hazeldine told the BBC about the death of her mother at Stafford Hospital.
Her mum Ellen was admitted to the hospital in July 2006 after a fall at home. She was in remission from bone cancer.
During her stay, she contracted a hospital superbug which led to her death in December 2006.
"The things I saw on the wards will probably haunt me forever.
"My mum was left without food, fluids... she was unable to get to the toilet," she said.
Furthermore, there was a mix-up at the hospital mortuary in which the undertakers were handed forms saying that Ellen's body was highly infectious, so people should not be allowed to see her.
In the end, Deb did see her - but only for a few minutes when she was in a body bag.
He wrote that greater "openness and transparency when things go wrong" was required and said the Department of Health would "listen carefully" to inquiry findings.
Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust looks after Stafford and Cannock Chase Hospitals.
Last month, a panel appointed by the regulator Monitor said the trust was "unsustainable" in its present form.
Lyn Hill-Tout, chief executive at the trust, said in a statement: "The Care Quality Commission lifted all concerns it had about Stafford Hospital in July 2012.
"Our mortality rates are second best out of 41 Trusts in the Midlands and East of England region and have been consistently better than the level expected for the last few years.
"None of our patients has acquired MRSA infection in hospital since February 2012 and our Clostridium Difficile rate continues to fall year on year."
She added that nursing standards had been improved by the introduction of ward sisters, and staffing levels were constantly monitored to ensure enough trained staff are on duty at all times.
"The terrible care received between 2005 and 2009 is not representative of the care patients now receive in our hospital.
"We are not complacent, we know we don't get it right every time, but we do not hide the facts when things are not as good as what we would want them to be," she added.
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