Deaths of 2,875 patients blamed on poor care

The BBC’s Panorama programme found that in 2011, 2,875 patients died and 7,585 suffered serious harm because of unsafe care in NHS hospitals.

The revelations come five years after the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust scandal, when hundreds of people died unnecessarily.

The findings come as radical changes to the way doctors are checked to ensure they are safe to treat patients come into force today.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted there may still be pockets of appalling standards of care within the health and social care system.

He told Panorama: “Whilst the majority of patients receive excellent care from the NHS, we still have much to do to ensure quality of care is considered as important as quality of treatment throughout the system”.

He said a “major priority” of the Government was to put in place proper structures and safeguards to ensure all patients receive acceptable care.

Mike Williams, a former NHS hospital trust chief executive and patient safety expert, said: “Most hospitals are now having more and more patients coming through the front door.

“The money is at a standstill if not reducing. The number of staff are therefore at the same level. They’re having to do more work and work harder and faster.

“The research is very clear that where staff have to work extremely hard and overwork, they are much more likely to make mistakes.”

The public inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire scandal is due out early in the New Year, with major changes expected in its wake.

Peter Walsh, of campaigning charity Action Against Medical Accidents, said: “One of my biggest fears for the outcome of the Staffordshire public inquiry is that the Government will try and convince us all that changes have already taken place, that this is an historical issue and that the new system will somehow deal with the problems that led to Mid Staffordshire. That couldn’t be further from the truth.”

The new system of checks for doctors – known as revalidation – will be run by the General Medical Council and means the UK’s 230,000 licensed doctors will be legally required to show they are up to date and are fit to practise.

The new system is based on an annual appraisal and the information doctors will collect about their practice, including feedback from patients, doctors, nurses and other colleagues. It is being set up in the wake of recommendations by the landmark inquiry into serial killer GP Harold Shipman.

The UK is the first country in the world to introduce such a system across its whole healthcare system, covering GPs, hospital doctors, locums and those working in the independent sector. To keep their licence to practise, doctors will be required to revalidate on a regular basis, usually every five years.

To kick off the new checks, the GMC will today start writing to 13,000 doctors telling them when they will revalidate. The rest of the UK’s licensed doctors will be written to by the end of January. The GMC expects to revalidate the majority by March 2016.

Prof Sir Peter Rubin, chairman of the GMC, who will be one of the first doctors to be revalidated, said: “We are confident that over time revalidation will make a significant contribution to the quality of care that patients receive and should give them increased confidence that the doctors who treat them are up to date.”

Health Minister Dan Poulter, who is himself a doctor, said: “Doctors save lives every day and making sure they are up to speed with the latest treatments and technologies will help them save even more. This is why a proper system of revalidation is so important.”

Panorama – How Safe is Your Hospital? will be shown at 8.30pm tonight on BBC One.