Ex-nursing director's care apology

Stafford Hospital's former director of nursing has accepted some responsibility for poor standards of care.

Dr Helen Moss told the Stafford Hospital Inquiry she was aware of problems of standards of care and a shortage of nurses.

The doctor, who was at Stafford between December 2006 and November 2009, said that at one stage there were vacancies to fill 120 nursing jobs.

The inquiry heard the hospital trust invested £1.7m in recruiting new nurses — £1.5m short of what was needed for the required amount of nurses.

Recruiting nurses was an ongoing issue at Stafford Hospital, she said , and a report, commissioned by the hospital's board and published in March 2008, showed shortage of staff at one point represented 13 per cent of the overall workforce. The inquiry heard that at times only eight out of 10 nurse shifts were filled and there were complaints from patients that there were not enough staff on wards to take care of them.

Inquiry counsel, Tom Kark QC, asked Dr Moss whether, as a nurse, she had a code of conduct that was a personal duty for patients under her care.

She agreed but was then asked whether, as director of nursing, that level of responsibility was removed.

Dr Moss said: "No, I think it's a different type of responsibility, because I wasn't delivering hands on care. I was responsible for the delivery of hands-on care."

Dr Moss told the inquiry there was a 'closed culture' which made finding out problems was not always straightforward.

She said: "You can put processes in place, but you have to change hearts and minds and culture as well to go along with it."

Dr Moss, who became a registered nurse in 1987, arrived at Stafford in December 2006. She told the inquiry that when she started, she was given 'two-sides of paper' of information to help in her new role.

Saying she was an expert in nursing matters, Dr Moss said there was nothing that particularly attracted nurses to the hospital and there was a limited 'throughput'.

Dr Moss said that the majority of nurses at the hospital came straight from university and, when she took over, basic daily practice was 'just not happening'

She said: "It was something I noticed very quickly from doing walk arounds."

Asked if there was anything she would like to add, at the end of the inquiry, Ms Moss said: "I suppose I'd just like to say that I'm really sorry for patients and families that received poor care in the trust, and it was only ever my intention to improve quality of care whilst I was in post in the organisation."