How Very Unfortunate

"There were patients so desperate for water that they were drinking from dirty flower vases. And relatives were ignored or even reproached when pointing out the most basic things which could have saved their loved ones from horrific pain or even death. We can only begin to imagine the suffering endured by those whose trust in our health system was betrayed at their most vulnerable moment.
"I would like to apologize to the families of all those who suffered from the way the system allowed this horrific abuse to go unchecked and unchallenged for so long. On behalf of the government and indeed our country, I am truly sorry.
"Hundreds of people suffered from the most appalling neglect and mistreatment."
British Prime Minister David Cameron

Well, that's all right, then. Empathy expressed, compassion extended, frank admission that in a state-operated system, the state - which is to say the government - is fully responsible for a lack of universal standards that should logically apply to all public and private hospitals, anywhere that tax dollars go to support universal medicare. In a country where equality of access to government-operated services represents the expectations of citizens, it should hardly matter where hospital and medical care is given, should it?

Of course government cannot be everywhere at all times. On the other hand, the betrayal of the most elemental standards of medical care and human compassion went on for a very long time. No way to measure the standards of care available through a rotating roster of government-affiliated watchdogs? Oh, right - he also said that the "overwhelming responsibility" for the failures should be pointed directly at the board of Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust whose vigilance and dedication to ensuring optimum treatment at the hospital oversaw hospital function.

Clearly, it was they who failed. The buck doesn't stop, after all, at government, at the governing cabinet, at Whitehall, let alone the busy schedule of the Prime Minister of Britain. Those 1,200 patients who had the misfortune to be admitted for critical care to Stafford Hospital met their early death because the hospital lacked the professionalism to offer adequate care. Patients going without food, clean water, left in pain as a result of incorrect medication, forced to soil their hospital beds, without assistance to relieve themselves.

And when relatives complained the hospital staff met those concerns with "callous indifference" for there was "no culture" of hearing out patients' complaints. "There was a lack of care, compassion, humanity and leadership" according to the chairman of the enquiry that finally shed the light of public scrutiny on the situation.  A situation that overseers failed to identify. The situation was revealed only after a report lingered on the high mortality rates at the hospital which a dedicated group of patients and their relatives began campaigning against.

All's well. The prime minister has seen fit to create a new position: chief inspector of hospitals. And perhaps while he's at it he will launch another investigation. This one to reveal how it was that doctors and nurses at the hospital simply walked away from their responsibilities. How it was that professional health workers at this particular hospital felt no responsibility toward the well-being and continued lives of patients under their care. The newly-released report highlighted that these things happened. Making little mention of how matters could have deteriorated to such a degree, and where professional responsibility failed.

Above all, how it could be that once these stark failings came to public attention, no action was taken to discipline, let alone dismiss the hospital administrators, and the physicians and nurses who had a very important role in society, one that they failed to take seriously. That this dreadful malpractise went on for four years, and nothing was done to ameliorate the plight of patients. That these very same health professionals remain employed at the hospital.

The very same hospital whose systems are finished being placed under scrutiny and will now undergo a change in hospital culture, to reflect a set of primary standards, and impose upon the hospital staff a moral obligation to report any issues of malpractise they may witness. Let alone themselves perform.