'I'm going to make sure this doesn't happen again...'
UNDER-FIRE NHS boss Sir David Nicholson says he is 'absolutely determined' to stay in his job despite admitting failures over the Stafford Hospital scandal.
Sir David said the 'NHS lost its focus' and he conceded that he 'was a part of that'.
But he again rebuffed calls for him to resign, saying he wanted to lead the NHS through health reforms.
Campaigners said that Sir David should be sacked following the publication of the Francis Report into serious failings at Stafford Hospital.
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He was in charge of the regional health authority for 10 months between 2005 and 2006 – the height of the failings in care at the trust.
Giving evidence to the health select committee, Sir David said: "During that period, across the NHS as a whole, patients were not the centre of the way the system operated. For a whole variety of reasons, not because people were bad but because there were a whole set of changes going on and a whole set of things we were being held accountable for from the centre, which created an environment where the leadership of the NHS lost its focus. I put my hands up to that and I was a part of that, but my learning from that was to make sure it doesn't happen again."
But he told MPs that the local health authority had 'no idea' about the serious care failures at the trust – where patients were routinely neglected and as many as 1,200 could have died needlessly as a result of maltreatment and neglect.
Patients were left lying in their own urine and excrement for days, forced to drink water from vases or given the wrong medication.
The NHS boss has been backed by the Prime Minister and a number of former health secretaries.
But Julie Bailey, left, who set up the Cure The NHS campaign group after her mother Bella died at Stafford Hospital in 2007, said Sir David's evidence was 'shameful' and 'embarrassing'.
After the hearing, Ms Bailey, who has led the calls for Sir David's resignation, said: "That man is an absolute disgrace."
Asked about suggestions that he would stay in post to lead reform of the NHS, she replied: "It's just laughable. We need to get rid of him. Nothing will change. He is part of the problem, not the solution."
Comment: Page 10.
3 Comments
by BucknallMel
Wednesday, March 06 2013, 12:45PM
“I know how to avoid it happening again, Sir David - resign, give back the outrageous sums you 'earned' during your time allegedly running the health authority and any bonuses and payoffs you got, and NEVER get involved in health care again. Even for animals. Go find a brewery, see if you can run a p****-up.”
by Bernwa
Wednesday, March 06 2013, 10:55AM
“The really worrying thing is that, to do this job, Sir David must be in agreement with the governments ideas - so, with his track record, how good are the governments ideas?”
by Anon_mow_cop
Wednesday, March 06 2013, 9:23AM
“It's always the same refrain "We will make sure it doesn't happen again". If they were proper managers who knew what they were doing,they would have made sure it didn't happen in the first place.”