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Hospital Trusts (Essex)

I am sure that the House is grateful to the Secretary of State for making a statement about these two interventions at NHS foundation trusts, notwithstanding the fact that he is not directly responsible for what happens in those trusts. However, if he is going to take some responsibility, can he explain what he did on or after 4 November, when the inspection report into the prevention and control of infections at Basildon and Thurrock was published on the CQC website, including many of the findings that have subsequently caused so much distress to the patients and public around Basildon and Thurrock? Was Thursday's press release about the intervention by Monitor merely a sacrificial lamb ahead of the Dr. Foster report? Now that the taskforce has gone into the Basildon and Thurrock trust, does the Secretary of State agree that it is vital that, within days, it advises Monitor on whether the trust has, or does not have, the necessary leadership, clinical and otherwise, to take it forward for the future? Earlier this month, Monitor made it clear that it was considering intervention at Colchester because the trust appeared to have breached the terms of its authorisation. Did the Secretary of State have any correspondence with Monitor about that, and did he have a view about it at the time? In his statement today, the Secretary of State seems to have been talking almost interchangeably about the CQC and Monitor, but it will be evident to many, as it was to me, that they were not speaking from the same page in relation to Basildon last Thursday and Friday. Will the Secretary of State, like me, make it clear to the CQC and Monitor that the relationship between those two regulators will have to be closer and more harmonious than it has been in the past if it is to work effectively? The Secretary of State's statement centred on two individual trusts, but the repercussions will be felt across the country, not least because of the worrying data in the Dr. Foster report, none of which should come as any surprise to the Secretary of State. However, instead of listening to the messages in the report, the Government set out over the weekend to shoot the messengers. They are quite wrong to do so, and that will not restore public confidence. What is required, I am afraid, is evidence that the Government learn from the lessons of these serial failings. Why do I literally have to stand at this Dispatch Box again responding to issues very similar to those we saw at Maidstone and Stafford? Ministers each time call it an isolated case; each time they say, "We mustn't be complacent and it must never again happen"; but each time they fail to tackle the heart of the problem. We know that the NHS is capable of delivering some of the best health care in the world; we know that some hospitals—such as my own, Addenbrooke's, in Cambridge—are among the best in the country and do remarkably well. However, to understand why some hospitals do not deliver acceptable standards, we just have to look at the lessons of the recent past: Stoke Mandeville, 2006; Maidstone, 2007; Mid Staffs, March this year; today, Basildon and Thurrock trust. Recurrent themes have occurred in each of those hospitals: waiting time targets prioritised over patient care; clinical priorities distorted by Government targets; a focus on financial issues at the expense of patient care; senior management at board and strategic health authority level prioritising national targets and policy objectives over the delivery of quality care for patients; primary care trusts focused on the cost and volume of treatments, rather than performance management of the quality of care for their public; and a lack of leadership and accountability, with front-line staff finding that the concerns they have raised are not being listened to. When will the Secretary of State acknowledge that the Government must do something about this, and in particular scrap the top-down process targets that divert attention away from patient care towards tick-box questionnaires? It is clear that, where the regulatory system is concerned, the Government will have to abandon the health check published by the CQC last month. Will the Secretary of State agree that he should do so and instead have a rating system that actually relates to what patients experience in hospital and the results of the treatment they receive; that is based on outcomes, not processes; that has more on-the-spot inspections; that is based on patient experience and their reports of their outcomes; and that follows up unresolved complaints? Another reform is to give patients and the public the power to influence how care is provided in the NHS. The Government scrapped community health councils and have never since allowed there to be an effective patient voice in the local community. Will the Secretary of State ensure legal protection for staff who blow the whistle on failings in their trusts, and that the NHS adopts, as it must, a "no-blame" culture in which the penalty is for the cover-up, not the error? The public need to be assured that the Government are doing all that can be done to ensure the safety of patients in our hospitals, but today, how can they be? We have conflicting analyses from Dr. Foster and the CQC. We have Ministers out of their depth and in denial. We have an NHS that has the capacity to deliver the best, but with neither the incentives nor the leadership in place to make it happen. What did we get from the Secretary of State? We got processes, rather than purpose, and another statement that "this must never happen again". It is just not good enough.