"Concern over hospital acquired infections at Warrington"

My father, aged 80 years old, was treated in Warrington hospital during 2008. During his stay there he contracted C Difficile and hospital acquired pneumonia, resulting in his death.

His story has been publicised in the local papers recently, on Granada Reports and is presently being edited by a national paper. After sending a complaint to the chief executive, consisting of over 39 pages of issues/concerns & detailed failings for the care and treatment of my Dad, the hospital carried-out a 'full and detailed' investigation, resulting in no less than 22 forms of apologies for their failings.

These failings were also later confirmed during Dad's inquest. The Coroner stated 'This was not Warrington's finest hour' in his summing up and also informed the consultant pathologist that he would be writing to the hospital about her evidence.

My family have completed the hospital's own formal complaint process - without being satisfied by their responses to our concerns - even though they have acknowledged failings and the poor care and treatment for Dad. They have not addressed the more serious issues relating to 'general care & treatment' of all patients. Our complaint is now being forwarded onto the Healthcare Commission for them to review.

I'd like to identify just one more significant issue that clearly shows the generic approach to patients dying in this hospital. The hospital completed their 'open & transparent' investigation, and produced a report and personal action plan for the concerns we identified to them about Dad's complaint. However, what they failed to say was that they sent a report with almost the exact same contents, 6 months prior to Dad's death, to another family complaining. Both reports cover the same hospital, the same ward, the same nursing staff, the same issues and concerns, the same responses. Both patients died after contracting C Difficile. I have both reports in my possession.