Stephen Metcalfe, Member of Parliament for South
Basildon and East Thurrock, has today written to Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet
Secretary, asking that he investigate whether the Civil Service Code was
breached in the run up to the last General Election, during the release of a
report into failures of care at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital.
Stephen said: “Like many others I was shocked to read reports in the Daily
Telegraph and Daily Mail this morning relating again to the historic
failures in care at our local hospital.”
“In 2009 Inspectors from the CQC discovered worryingly high death rates and
evidence of blood on curtains and catheters left on floors. The very least
families of patients treated in these conditions deserved was a thorough
investigation and the assurance that such failures would not happen again.”
“However, the evidence presented this morning suggests that Andy Burnham, then
Health Secretary, and his team, attempted for political gain to manipulate the
release of CQC reports into failures of care.”
“Bearing in mind the close relationship between my predecessor and the then
Prime Minister, I hope that there was no collusion that denied patients the
right to know the truth about the care they might receive.”
“Already several health experts have testified that the Department of Health
under Andy Burnham was ‘a denial machine’, in the words of Professor Brian
Jarman. A former Chair of the CQC, Dame Barbara Young, has described ‘huge
government pressure’ for her organisation not to criticise the Government. The
release of these new emails confirms that senior figures within the CQC felt
pressure from the Department of Health.
“I have tried to raise this issue on the floor of the House of Commons but was
ruled out of order by the Speaker, since when I have remained deeply concerned
that civil servants came under undue political pressure from the front bench
Labour team and those associated with them, who were nervous about the
proximity of the General Election.”
“Since 2010 there have been many management changes at the hospital and we are
all more open and transparent about the challenges faced and I can assure the
public that we will address any future failures in a more honest way.”
