Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price has offered the following comment on the emergence of email evidence which shows that the CQC were placed under undue pressure to cover up failings at Basildon Hospital. The emails obtained by Stephen Barclay through FOI requests illustrate that CQC were aware of serious failings at Basildon in May 2009 and advised Monitor and the Department of Health that they did not have confidence in the management of the hospital. The emails also reveal that Ministers were furious when the information became public in November.
Jackie said, “These emails show that the CQC were placed under undue pressure from the Department of Health to suppress information relating to safety at Basildon and Thurrock University hospital. It also proves that the CQC told Monitor that they had no confidence in the senior management at Basildon to address the high death rates.
This raises serious questions about the role of Monitor as a regulator and even more serious questions about the role of Labour ministers who were more concerned with their political reputations than with the safety of patients. Perhaps Labour didn’t want a bad news story at a hospital that Gordon Brown had visited and that served two marginal Parliamentary constituencies.
But more seriously, it is what this has meant for the performance at Basildon and the standard of care experienced by patients. In the discussion I have had with CQC since I was elected it was clear that they believed that there were serious failings by management – but it was three years before they were replaced despite being patently not up to the job, and only then because I was not prepared to tolerate continued failure and made clear I had no confidence in the leadership of the Trust. How many lives could have been saved if action had been taken in 2009 and when the management weaknesses were identified. In the last year we have seen that the change in leadership has led to improvements in care at Basildon. Those improvements could have started three years sooner if we could have had a little more honesty from the then Secretary of State. Sadly the care and welfare of patients in Basildon and Thurrock came a poor second place