Stafford Hospital scandal

The hospital was run by the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, and supervised by the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority.

[2] When the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which was responsible for running the hospital, failed to provide what the commission considered an adequate explanation, a full-scale investigation was carried out between March and October 2008.

[2] Released in March 2009, the commission's report severely criticised the Foundation Trust's management and detailed the conditions and inadequacies at the hospital.

[12] Cynthia Bower, who was from 2006 chief executive of NHS West Midlands, was recruited to run the Care Quality Commission quango in March 2009, a move which was criticised.

[13] On 21 July 2009, the Secretary of State for Health, Andy Burnham, announced a further independent inquiry into care provided by Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust.

[20] Former chief executive Martin Yeates, who "resigned with a pay-off of more than £400,000 and a £1 million pension pot", escaped cross-examination at the inquiry due to self-reported ill-health "with post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition often associated with soldiers returning from war zones" but did participate with a written statement.

[18] Helene Donnelly, a nurse at the hospital, complained that the two Sisters running the department had told staff to lie about waiting times.

She subsequently gave evidence to the Francis inquiry and was later appointed[21] ambassador for cultural change at Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership NHS Trust.

[22][23] Academics at the University of Oxford and King's College London have criticised the recommendations of the Francis inquiry to legally enforce a new duty of openness, transparency and candour amongst NHS staff, arguing that increasing 'micro-regulation' may produce serious unintended consequences.

[31] Sir David Nicholson, who was in charge of the NHS which was responsible for the hospital at the height of the failings between 2005 and 2006, resigned in May 2013 in connection with this scandal.