Stafford Hospital report: As it happened

emails: Don't think this hospital is an exception - this has been going on in our hospitals for years. The government needs to send teams unannounced into every hospital to check up on how patients are treated. You don't need to have qualifications to see that food and water are being left out of patients' reach and that they are not being helped to eat and drink.

emails: A public enquiry, intervention by CQC, introducing inspectors, rules and regulations etc. is no solution. We only need a responsible nurse to supervise every hospital ward. We used to have them - they were called "Matrons".

emails: I understand that mismanagement led to some severe problems at Stafford, but I would like to put an alternative picture. Between 2006 and 2008 I had 3 operations at Stafford which included a 10 day period in intensive care. The care I received was excellent and the staff were very caring throughout. I am now back to full health thanks entirely to the skill and care of the staff at Stafford.

emails: One needs to realise this poor outcome has been driven by the Governments ridiculous approach to target setting and report generation... The cost-cutting and target-chasing culture lays firmly at the Government's's feet and they need to take some responsibility for the culture they are driving.

emails: As a A/E Nurse I can tell you this a problem throughout the NHS. For many years targets have steered patient care; hitting targets missing the point. This problem has been going on for years... Stafford is the tip of the Ice Berg many other trusts will be watching feeling very nervous.

emails: This is not a one off in one institution. I have both seen and been on the other end of bad hospital care. I had to have spinal surgery and wasn't allowed to sit up for two days following the operation, food was left out of reach, it took over an hour for healthcare staff to answer my alarm when I needed to use the bathroom and they didn't clean the sheets, bed or the ward in the entire 8 days of my stay.

emails: Results of the report yet to be revealed and there clearly was a total failure of management both professionally and corporately at Staffordshire which has not been properly addressed via a transparent disciplinary process.... There are issues and the focus on financial performance placed on the Trust by the SHA and Monitor the regulator has to be recognised. But good work is done and continues to be done by the NHS across England

emails: I am finding all this reporting a little difficult. Have being recently diagnosed with Cancer, I have received an amazing level of care from the Oncology and Haematology team of Stafford Hospital. It is such a shame that the whole hospital must be tarnished with the same brush. I would like to express my personal thanks to them publicly.

John Bell, Stafford

emails: Stafford Hospital is the worst in the Country. Unfortunately, my family lived in the hospital catchment area. In 2006 my father died in that hospital.

My mother was treated in there several times over the last six years and I have appalling correspondence with senior people at the hospital which still confirms that hospital is not running efficiently. These include her being left for hours in her own faeces and losing her notes following breast cancer surgery. My mother died a few weeks ago in Walsall Manor hospital (after we refused to allow her back to Stafford Hospital) and the staff there were completely dedicated to the care of my mother and could not be faulted.

emails: : It's a relief to see the whistle being blown on appalling management in the NHS. However, it is a mistake to imagine that Stafford stands alone - this situation is widespread and extends to mental health as well as physical.

emails: I fully understand the nature of this report and of the terrible things that happened at Stafford hospital. But I also want to say that there are good people who work and care at this hospital...

My mother was treated well by doctors, and cared for by the nursing staff. I have mixed emotions about this news story... But my reason for sending this story to you is that not everyone at this hospital lacks compassion, skill and knowledge to treat people.

emails: Doesn't anyone care what all this furore is doing to the current workforce at Stafford - mistakes may have been made but I am sure they have learnt from them and I know from personal experience that the staff there give nothing but 100% even though resources are stretched to the limit! We should be proud of our NHS and the workforce who save lives everyday!!

emails: Having worked in the NHS from 1968 to 1996 I am particularly distressed by the way it has turned out. It was a kind and friendly place and we spent as much time and money on our patients as they needed. Politicians were not interested and we had never heard of managers until the late 80s. Doctors and Nurses ran the service and we had never heard the word "audit".

emails: I had the worst experiences of my life as a patient in the NHS. The overall culture is that the patient does not come first. Much more stringent recruitment process needed. A whole culture change whereby the patient always comes first is needed.

emails: We need to have a standard minimum required level of nursing staff defined for every ward nationally. Hospitals need to operate 24/7 or at least 7 days a week. There's only skeleton staff over the weekend. It's ridiculous that patients have to wait until the weekend is over before certain tests and procedures can be done because staff are off...This happens all the time.

emails: I had a stroke on May 5th 2010 that was never scanned at Stafford to confirm, but I was discharged from A&E as suffering a headache despite being taken there by ambulance. Two days later I was scanned at Stafford and the bleed was confirmed. I was treated well by all staff on the second visit except for one very poor night team indeed where they just wanted a quiet night and were not attentive. When transferred to New Cross at Wolverhampton, they were excellent in their care and attention and cannot be praised enough.

emails: My mother died at Stafford in 2007 and my family and I will never forgive ourselves for not doing more in complaining, in the way she was treated. She walked into Stafford Hospital but never came out again. There were times when she begged us to let her come home.

One day we came in to find her face all bruised, only to be told she had fallen. No one seemed to know how. Another time we came in to find she had diarrhoea but no one attended to her. My brother had to take her to the toilet and clean her up.

emails: I was taken from work to Stafford Hospital in 2005 with a suspected miscarriage. After a scan I was told that my pregnancy was not viable and that I had indeed miscarried. I was booked in for the following day for a D & C. I considered this overnight and decided to go to my own GP who referred me to the North Staffs Hospital. I went on to have a normal pregnancy and gave birth to my son Ben - now seven. I often go cold at the thought of not having him - something that could have so easily happened.

emails: I had a heart attack in 2007. Care on the intensive care ward was good. In the recovery ward care was less good. In a ward where rest was important, a patient from a medical ward was put in the ward who was so confused that sleep was very difficult. My wife and I were promised an advisory video - the wrong video was put in the machine... causing us a lot of distress. When being moved by ambulance to North Staffs Hospital the driver was given the wrong postcode and I was taken to a caravan park up the M6 north of Newcastle Under Lyme.

emails: How many senior managers and boards are reading this thinking 'there but for the grace of god, go I ?' I'm sure there are plenty of Trusts that can see similarities with many of the individual failings from the report, but are thankful that they have not been subjected to the same scrutiny as Stafford. It's time for all of us that work in the NHS to wake up and take notice - it is simply not acceptable to deliver or witness poor standards of care.

emails: Being originally from Ukraine, I have been living in the UK for the last 12 years and I must admit that I have never seen worse health service than here, in the UK. The NHS budget is comparable to a Eastern European country's budget, but yet the services provided are completely inadequate, despite the fact that facilities in some areas are best of the best.

emails: Stafford Hospital kept me fully informed as to my condition and treatment throughout my stay and treated me with respect and sympathy when I was informed that I needed a triple bypass operation in 2005. I had nothing but praise for the hospital when I was admitted following a heart attack. The team in the cardiac care ward were fantastic, as were the members of the cardiac rehabilitation team following my bypass operation at another hospital.

emails: Stafford Hospital clearly has problems, indeed my own mother had a bad experience there a couple of years ago, but it is still a hospital needed by the local community. Stafford Hospital has financial problems as well as problems with care and there is a real danger that it will be forced to close its doors, meaning people will have to travel to Stoke or Wolverhampton. The hospital has been guilty of some appalling care, but it can't improve if it no longer exists.

emails: My mother was taken to A & E, Stafford in March 2007 after a fall. She was practically unconscious for the whole time she was there. The doctor sent her home saying there was nothing wrong with her even though she had a very badly bruised head from the fall. She wasn't given a scan (which we were told would have been given routinely at another nearby hospital) and we were left to try and carry her back to the car. A week later she was finally admitted and diagnosed with a brain tumour. During the week she was looked after in the Emergency Assessment Unit at Stafford, she received terrible care.

emails: Speaking with friends today, we all agree that Stafford Hospital has treated us all well, particularly the maternity services. I really don't want to give birth anywhere else and I'm due in March. I hope these historical issues don't close the hospital we have today.

emails: My wife currently works as a Nurse at Stafford Hospital, she is ashamed to tell people where she works and what she does, and feels her personal security is at risk. She is a dedicated, loving and caring person who is now going to leave the profession altogether.

emails: Regulation and inspection are important, but on their own will not work. What is needed is a shift in attitude in 'culture' from revenue to relationships. Care is not about ticking off a list of tasks but engaging with every single patient to ensure their moral and legal right to safe care appropriate to them as individuals is delivered. Patient-centred care will only become a reality if that shift happens - and when all NHS staff from chief executive to healthcare assistant embrace and adopt that shift.

emails: My girlfriend went into Stafford hospital for a minor operation in the day unit. After the operation she insisted she felt unwell, but it took them an additional five hours to realise she had internal bleeding, at which stage they rushed her back to theatre. She was lucky enough to avoid having to have a blood transfusion, but only by a couple of hours. Some staff were great, but the overall experience is one I never wish to experience again. It is far too easy to blame the government and budget cuts, people need to start taking responsibility for their own actions and stop playing the blame game.

emails: As a nurse on the front line of services, all I am hearing is accountability and blame. Stop discussing who to blame and start making changes.

emails: My father had excellent care from surgeons at Stafford, but once described another patient, who couldn't get out of bed, in desperate need of a nurse so he could relieve himself. Dad struggled to walk to a nurses station where staff were taking a break, and were not happy to be disturbed. Having said this, there were some exemplary nurses there who went above and beyond to attend to dad's needs, even waiting after hours to see he was OK following urgent surgery.

emails: My mother in her 80's attended and was admitted to Stafford Hospital on a number of occasions between 2004 and 2007. She was admitted for observation between Christmas and new year 2004/5 it was just a horror, mixed ward, mixed ages, NO cleaning at all over the several days she was there before she was transferred to a ward. I wrote an email complaining, but of course I now now they were just ignored.

emails: I have personally experienced dreadful effects of the cuts in funding at the hospital where I work. I have read the reports of the appalling neglect at Stafford and can see the potential for the same situation developing throughout the NHS. It is heartbreaking to work in a caring profession and not be able to provide the care that all patients deserve.