Stafford Hospital Inquiry finds ‘failure on every level’

A public inquiry into the appalling care at a state-run hospital in Britain has found "failure on every level," blaming the NHS for focusing too much on business, cash and targets instead of patients.

The inquiry was launched after news broke that about 400 to 1,200 more people may have died at Stafford Hospital between 2005 and 2008 than would have been expected.

Robert Francis, a top lawyer, who led the inquiry made 290 recommendations in his 1,782-page report, calling for a fundamental change to healthcare in Britain, Yahoo News reported. He acknowledged that the NHS has a series of checks and balances in place to help prevent the kind of systematic failure that took place at Stafford Hospital, and that there were numerous warning signs.

Some of the recommendations in his report included:

– making care providers, both individuals and organizations, accountable for what they do
-enhance the recruitment, education, training and support of all the key personnel in the NHS, especially those in nursing and leadership positions
-foster a common culture that puts a patient's care first 
-make hiding information about poor care a criminal offense 

Julie Bailey, who set up Cure the NHS after her mother died at Stafford Hospital, said that relatives of the victims wanted to see people held responsible for the scandal, AFP reported.

Speaking to ITV, Bailey said, "We believe the NHS has just lost sight of what it is there for – the patient. Everybody looks up in the NHS, nobody looks out to what the patient wants and what the patients need."

UK's Prime Minister David Cameron was shocked by the findings, and is expected to make a statement following the report, BBC reported.