Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal: Cameron to deliver response to inquiry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/05/mid-staffordshire-hospital-cameron-inquiry

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David Cameron is to deliver the government's response in the House of Commons on Wednesday to the Francis inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal.

In a sign of the gravity of the inquiry, Downing Street confirmed that the prime minister would take the rare step of delivering the government's statement after briefing the cabinet about the report on Tuesday.

The relevant secretary of state would usually make such a statement. But the prime minister occasionally delivers the government's response to major inquiries, as he did on the Bloody Sunday inquiry and in the Pat Finucane case, when he believes it is important to acknowledge the gravity of the issue.

Cameron met relatives of victims of those who died at the Mid Staffordshire NHS trust on Monday. It is estimated that between 400 and 1,200 patients may have died at Stafford hospital between 2005 and 2008.

The prime minister's spokesman said: "The point the secretary of state [for health, Jeremy Hunt] and the prime minister were making in cabinet is around the seriousness of the issues. This will be the second Francis report. The first into care standards at the trust highlighted what can only be described as a completely unacceptable failure that caused appalling distress to patients and their families.

"Given the scale of the failings that that original report uncovered it is the government's very clear view that it is important to get to the bottom of why those failings were undetected for so long. That is why it is right to have set up the public inquiry [which] focused on the commissioning and regulatory regime – why these failings were undetected."