News

The Public Inquiry into the failure to regulate the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Opens
8 November 2010

This Public Inquiry will build on the work of the Private Inquiry into the standards of care at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust held in 2009 in which Jo Hughes was also instructed as Junior Counsel to the Inquiry. The Public Inquiry will undertake a wide-ranging examination of the role of the commissioning, supervisory and regulatory bodies and systems used in the NHS to detect and correct deficiences in service provision. It is hoped it will provide an answer as to why the problems at Mid-Staffordshire NHS FoundationTrust were not identified sooner and appropriate action taken. The lessons learned from the Inquiry are likely to be of significance in ensuring that failing and potentially failing hosptials are identified as soon as possible in the future. The Inquiry will in due course be examining the actions of a large number of organisations including the Department of Health, the Care Quality Commission and the Health and Safety Executive. The Inquiry, which is being heard in Stafford, will hear from a large number of witnesses and is likely to last until mid-2011.