An independent inquiry into “appalling” levels of care at Stafford Hospital cost taxpayers £1.7m, it has emerged.
Patients were neglected by staff and management were too focused on targets, Robert Francis QC said in his 900-page report last month.
The Healthcare Commission revealed the hospital’s high death rate last year.
The government has defended the figure but Cure The NHS Campaigner Julie Bailey, who wants a public inquiry, said the report was a “waste of money”.
She said: ”The first thing the Department of Health - the government - said to us was a public inquiry would cost too much.
“We feel the expense is just a total waste of money because we have learned very little from this inquiry.”
There were at least 400 more deaths than expected at the hospital between 2005 to 2008, the Healthcare Commission report said last March.
This latest investigation into what went wrong, which made 18 recommendations, took five months to compile but has not satisfied many relatives.
Read more at BBC Health.
Tags: Mid Staffordshire
