NURSES at Stafford Hospital complained to their union that written reports documenting serious concerns over patient care were thrown into the bin.

Their complaints were made to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) after staff feared "incident forms" were being ignored by hospital bosses.

The RCN told MPs in a meeting yesterday that, between 2005 and 2008, nurses at Stafford, slammed for appalling standards of care earlier this year, submitted 500 incident forms.

Around 200 of those were submitted in a single six-month period at the end of 2007 by nurses worried about patients.

Howard Catton, RCN head of policy development, said: "The concern is that these forms were going into a black hole or a wastepaper basket.

"And actually there was one example reported to us where a nurse said she did see an incident form in a senior manager's wastepaper basket."

A report from the Healthcare Commission in March slammed "appalling" and "shocking" standards of care at the hospital which led to between 400 and 1,200 more people dying there than would have been expected over three years.

Families described "Third World" conditions at the trust, with some patients so thirsty they drank water from vases.

Mr Catton said: "People were reporting concerns, but didn't feel that those concerns were being taken seriously and that led to a loss of confidence."

He added that a significant number of the forms related to unease over staff shortages, later highlighted as a key factor in the hospital's problems.

MPs on the Commons Health Select Committee also heard from a senior physician at the hospital, Dr Peter Daggett, who claimed doctors too had submitted dozens of forms about serious incidents which were never acted on.

One example was "CT scans showing possible pancreatic cancer weren't shown to consultants for weeks or months," the committee heard.

Written evidence highlighted how the consultant who had circulated his concerns to colleagues was later suspended on "flimsy grounds".

Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said he had not ruled out a further inquiry, but added: "I would want to be convinced it would add real value."