Health Safety Assurance

Health Secretary Andy Burnham MP has given an assurance to Old Bexley & Sidcup Conservative Parliamentary Candidate James Brokenshire that safety concerns at hospital trusts highlighted as "significantly underperforming" in a report at the weekend - including South London Healthcare NHS Hospitals Trust (SLHT) - will be investigated. In its 2009 good hospital guide independent health consultants Dr Foster gave SLHT a score of 4.79 out of 100 and ranked it in the lowest of five performance bands. Dr Foster highlighted that SLHT was unable to provide figures on accidents in which ‘foreign objects' are left in patient's bodies after surgery or where patients received an operation on the wrong part of the body. The trust was also unable to provide figures on the number of operations cancelled at its hospitals.

Speaking during a special Parliamentary debate on patient safety, Mr Burnham said that the hospital regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), would be looking into the serious weaknesses highlighted in the Dr Foster guide. Responding to a question from James Brokenshire, Mr Burnham said that CQC would ‘follow up' on concerns raised about the hospital trusts (including SLHT) and that he would keep MPs updated on any further action.

Commenting James Brokenshire said:

"The information provided by the Dr Foster Guide raises a number of serious questions and I welcome the fact that these will now be followed up with South London Healthcare NHS Trust and other trusts identified as having significant issues. What is particularly worrying is that the concerns highlighted by Dr Foster contradict some of the previous assurances on standards provided by the Care Quality Commission. The sooner we can get some certainty on the safety procedures adopted at local hospitals and the robustness of the independent inspection and assessment regime the better."

The full text of the exchange between James Brokenshire MP and Health Secretary Andy Burnham MP was as follows:

James Brokenshire: The Secretary of State must appreciate that throughout the country there will still be considerable uncertainty as to the standards of care provided at hospitals. In his statement, on the one hand, he implied that the CQC was authoritative, yet on the other hand he said that, where legitimate concerns had been identified, they would be followed up. Can he be more specific on how they will be followed up, and assure the House about the timetable for this, so we can get some greater certainty given the information that has been provided over the past few days?

Andy Burnham: I can, indeed, give the hon. Gentleman that assurance. That is the job of the CQC: its job is both to provide regular supervision of performance across the national health service, and where concerns are identified, to intervene and ensure that the necessary action is taken. It acted in respect of Basildon and Thurrock, and because it had not seen sufficient improvement, its concerns have now escalated and it is working in tandem with Monitor. That is how the process works. Where there are concerns about other trusts, it will follow them up with those trusts. I repeat what I said in my statement: I will update the House where any action has been taken.

Back to all posts