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" The families of patients who suffered &amp;#039;horrific experiences&amp;#039; at Stafford hospital will be haunted by memories of their loved ones&amp;#039; treatment for the rest of their lives, an inquiry has said. The hospital, one of two run by the Mid Staffordshire NHS foundation trust, left patients &amp;#039;sobbing and humiliated&amp;#039;, Robert Francis QC said in the conclusions of his government-commissioned inquiry. Unprecedented failures in care at the hospital were exposed by the Healthcare Commission last year in a report that condemned a target-driven and cost-cutting culture that led to 400 more deaths than would have been expected between 2005 and 2008. The inquiry revealed that unqualified receptionists were routinely assessing people in A&amp;amp;amp;E, while patients were left in soiled sheets their families had to wash themselves. &amp;#039;I heard so many stories of shocking care,&amp;#039; Mr Francis said. &amp;#039;These patients were not simply numbers, they were husbands, wives, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, grandparents. &amp;#039;They were people who entered Stafford Hospital and rightly expected to be well cared for and treated. Instead many suffered horrific experiences that will haunt them and their loved ones for the rest of their lives.&amp;#039; But campaigners have expressed anger at the inquiry, which was conducted in private. Julie Bailey, whose mother died at the hospital and has since founded the Cure the NHS group, said: &amp;#039;It is time that the public were told the truth about the very large number of excess deaths of patients in NHS care and the very large number of avoidable but deadly errors that occur in NHS hospitals every day.&amp;#039; Care Quality Commission interim chair Jo Williams said the experiences described by patients and their loved ones were &amp;#039;deeply distressing and totally unacceptable&amp;#039;. She added: &amp;#039;With this in mind, our intention is to impose a number of conditions on the trust&amp;#039;s registration when the new system comes into force on April 1st. We will then carry out a detailed review of progress, listening with particular care to the views of patients, their family members and carers. We will not hesitate to use our new enforcement powers if essential standards are not in place.&amp;#039; Health secretary Andy Burnham said in a statement: &amp;#039;This was an appalling failure at every level of the hospital to ensure patients received the care and compassion they deserved. There can be no excuses for this. I am accepting all of the recommendations in full.&amp;#039; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-living/news/a19250/inquiry-describes-stafford-hospital-horror/>