Member of Parliament for Beverley and Holderness, Graham Stuart has welcomed the recommendation for a Chief Inspector of Hospitals for the National Health Service.
Mr Stuart said: “For too long our hospitals have been governed by a ‘tick box’ culture driven by the target led obsessions of the previous government.
“The Prime Minister has announced that he will appoint a Chief Inspector of Hospitals who will have sweeping powers to check the care provided to patients in hospitals. Every patient, regardless of age or infirmity, should be treated with care and compassion as well as competence and efficiency. A health service without kindness at its heart is one that has lost its way.
“I’m concerned that so many warnings were ignored so often and for so long. Ministers and officials in the last government need to think long and hard about their role and how such disasters could happen on their watch. My constituents write to me in despair at the lack of contrition from those at the top of organisations, and consequences for them, when things go wrong. They ask why no one ever seems to pay the price for wrecking a bank or presiding over hospitals in which hundreds of people die for want of the most basic care.
“Robert Francis’s report was commissioned after failings at Stafford Hospital but its findings will resonate with patients in hospitals across the country who demand better patient care.
“The Government will study every one of the 290 recommendations made in the report and will respond in greater detail shortly.”