In essence, it encouraged a change of culture. They were not operating in a vacuum, where patients did not matter and where the complaint might not ever get resolved—where, if a manager said it was okay, it disappeared. The fact that the light was switched on and that people could ask questions was valued.
There is a huge disconnect between the rules and the enforcement of rules. When local resolution fails there must be another, proper avenue for patients to appeal that decision: just having the NHS investigate the NHS is not the way to improve the health service, or patients’ confidence in it. Currently, the message we send out is that unless people have the financial resources to fight the system in the courts it is easy for families and patients to be ignored.
Chief executives and boards know that the ombudsman investigates only a tiny proportion of the cases referred to it, and it is not as feared as it should be. I say to the Secretary of State that we need an ombudsman service that is properly resourced, has the necessary investigative powers and sanctions, and makes public in its reports its findings to everybody who pays for the NHS, not just to Ministers. Being able to name and shame in the spirit of openness and transparency will be a powerful tool, especially when, in these times of foundation trust hospitals competing to attract business, reputation is the key.
Given that all hospitals will eventually become foundation hospitals, is the Secretary of State willing to say that foundation hospitals will have to report all their statistics openly and that every board meeting should be a public meeting? There should be no hiding; there should be openness and transparency right across the NHS. The light needs to be switched on not just in individual rooms but in the NHS, full stop.
I have on the wall of my constituency office this quote from an editorial in the Liverpool Echo:
“Doing the right things does not automatically follow saying the right things”.
At present, everyone in the national health service is saying the right things. What assurance can the Secretary of State give us that the NHS will do the right things? Frankly, the public do not want any more politics from anybody. They do not want warm words or excuses; they want actions that will lead to real change. No more big reorganisations; we just need to make a difference. He must listen to the people’s complaints. Actually, in Mid Staffs the complaints could not have been any louder.
I said to the hon. Member for Bristol North West (Charlotte Leslie) earlier that we cannot keep on saying that it is somebody else’s fault, that somebody else should be held accountable and that somebody else is going to supervise. This goes to the core of the Department of Health. If we listen to the people and give the ombudsman—the right person for the job—the powers to deliver, we will see a culture change.
1.41 pm