Tameside NHS trust to be reinvestigated after residents' campaign

The trust was found to have some of the highest death rates in the country in November when the independent analyst Dr Foster, published its Good Hospital Guide.

At the time, the CQC was criticised as “toothless” when it claimed that no further action was needed to investigate the trust, previously rated “good” for quality of care.
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But an unannounced inspection in December found evidence that the trust had breached guidelines on the prevention of infections such as MRSA.

The CQC said that it would also look again at mortality rates and surveys of patients and staff at the hospital, while Monitor, the independent regulator for foundation trusts, will also carry out an independent review of the way the trust is run.

Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary and MP for Leigh, appeared last night to back the investigation by the regulators.

He said that the NHS was the finest embodiment of Labour values but added: “There are places where it [the NHS] is not good enough and I will never shy away from saying that. Where it isn’t, we have to bring it up to standard.”

The announcement comes after the hospital’s four local Labour MPs said that they had lost confidence in trust management.

More than 470 people have so far joined the MPs James Purnell, Andrew Gwynne and David Heyes in signing a petition to the Prime Minister that calls for an independent investigation into “a catalogue of failings” at the trust.

Tom Levitt, the Labour MP for High Peak, is also said to support the campaign, and a Facebook campaign with more than 1,500 members also called for bosses to go.

Christine Green, chief executive of the trust, which runs Tameside General Hospital, insisted that the hospital was an effective and safe place to be treated.

The Department of Health said in a statement: “We are pleased that the independent regulators the CQC and Monitor, along with the North West Strategic Health Authority and the Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are working together to investigate concerns about the performance of the trust.

“Patient safety is our top priority and we expect any issues identified to be swiftly addressed and actions taken to ensure standards are improved where necessary so that local people can be confident in the quality of care provided by the trust.”