Stafford Hospital - Funding of Council Hospital Scrutiny Committee could be better spent donating direct to charities

Councillors ‘timid’ in scrutiny of Stafford Hospital
7th December 2010

Mr Dobbing told the inquiry that despite widespread concern about the hospital in 2009 the committee failed to challenge the trust or hold it to account.

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8 February 2011
Stafford Hospital Inquiry: Watchdog felt 'duped'

Janet Eagland, Staffordshire County Council's Health Scrutiny Committee vice chair until 2009, said she relied on management reports for information.
.. the scrutiny committee could have done more to investigate the situation once fears were raised.
... Asked about whether the committee had contacted the health complaints service PALS she told the inquiry they had not, adding that they had not contacted the now defunct Public & Patient Involvement Forum either.
  She said she had been under the impression that it was the job of the district council. ...

Central News 7 Oct 2011 Patients 'Died Needlessly' - INQUIRY ENDS AFTER 35 WEEKS. 6.02PM Fri Oct 7 2011
Whistleblower nurse - click for video

Health monitors did not question hospital ... Geraint Griffiths, deputy chief executive of South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust..."I accept we wouldn’t have the clinical expertise to look at an individual department." ...

'Stafford Borough Council has let down the people of Mid Staffordshire'
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
The scrutiny committee of Stafford Borough Council has got no teeth and has let down the people of Mid Staffordshire, a public inquiry has heard.
  Mr Roger Dobbing was giving evidence on the seventeenth day of the Public Inquiry of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
... Stafford Borough Council overview and scrutiny committee (OSC)
... to get the public involved in that way should be adopted by the OSC as well.

"They want the public to be involved in these issues and these meetings and the way they operate, but how can that happen if the public aren't allowed to speak within the meeting?"...
...said Mr Dobbing.
"The concept I see is that these councillors get elected and they then go into council sessions and that, and council committees, and the last thing on their mind then is looking after the people who have elected them. Especially on issues such as we have experienced in
Mid Staffordshire."
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Council health watchdog rep ignorant of hospital failings... "I did not recognise until early 2008 that there was a problem. That was when the media picked up on things.
1 FEB 2011
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January 27: Councillor Phillip Jones, who is both on Stafford Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council, as well as being a former governor of the hospital, ... a member of both the Health Scrutiny Committees for the borough and county councils. He told the inquiry that there was confusion over which council should be scrutinising Stafford Hospital. He said he wanted clarification from the county council over which areas of the hospital he should be scrutinising, but it never materialised, he claimed,... READ MORE