The Government’s response to the Francis Report
Filed Under (Francis Report, Prime Minister) by Paul on 07-02-2013
Since he became Prime Minister David Cameron has made three statements to the House of Commons in response to important reports into failures of the state. The first was the report on ‘Bloody Sunday’, the second on the Hillsborough report and the third, yesterday, was the Francis Report.
Of course all three of these reports investigated very different sorts of failures. But importantly all three of them relate to failures by government to listen to what they were being told, again and again, by the public. In all three cases the public, who were telling the truth, saw cover-ups by different parts of the state.
On all three occasions the Prime Minister has been impressive. The tone and the substance of what he has said has been clear. He has apologised for the country.
This is what he did yesterday. He was clear. He apologised for the way the system had failed these patients. But he went further. He said,
“On behalf of the Government and the country I am sorry”.
The House of Commons is seen by many as the fulcrum of the nation’s conflicts and many dislike it for that reason.
But sometimes the House of Commons can speak for the country – and that is what the Prime Minister did yesterday. His tone was echoed by the leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband.
David Cameron could have tried developing a very different tone but instead made it clear that Francis had said that Mid Staffs was not caused by any single policy or any single Secretary of State.
He specifically rejected any attempt to scapegoat.
On all three of these occasions there have been many individuals who wanted the PM to blame someone. In rejecting that approach he has disappointed some.
In terms of Mid Staffs he will have disappointed perhaps even some readers of this blog, those who believe that the only really tough response to events such as these is to find scapegoats.
They would be wrong.
The correct response to events such as these is to put things right, and this is what the PM and the leader of the opposition began to do yesterday.
It will take three weeks for the Government to respond to Francis and it will take the rest of us at least that long to work through its 290 recommendations.
I too was impressed with the way that the Prime MInister spoke in the House of Commons.
The whole Stafford problem was a systemic inevitability of attempting to commodify and price health interventions that started in the late 1980s with the development of an internal market for health.
This was the decision that lead, inevitably, to Stafford, and until the concept of a market-driven health service is ditched, then this will not be the last of the scandals.
We had scandals before a market driven health service. Right that we avoid scapegoating too.
After reading most of the report I think every secretary of state for Alan Milburn onwards should apologise. Starting with Milburn getting rid of CHCs and then through all the multiple reorganisation chaos, Francis makes clear that they all made it worse. To be really blunt, you probably advised some of them, so maybe you should join the club. I left the West Midlands in 2004, and I’m sitting here wondering if there was something I should have done.
It seems disingenuous to me, to talk about holding people to account in future, but avoiding scapegoating for the past. Scapegoating is about sacrificing someone who had little power or influence to cause the problem. Accountability is the opposite. Who has responsibility for the ‘culture’ of the system apart from those at the top who control the power? If we can’t hold people to account for their past actions, with all this evidence and public inquiry, there is no chance of doing so in future. Empty rhetoric.
Yes, bring the Community Health Councils back ASAP.They worked with large trusts and patients in a fair and balanced way.