Doctors say Mid Staffs deaths 'could happen again'

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh laid the blame for the disastrous death toll on a "lost" ethos of care above cost-cutting.

President Neil Dewhurst and vice-presidents Mike Jones and John Wilson said that they were "under no illusion that the problems encountered in Mid Staffordshire were a localised, or isolated, happening."

In the College's journal they wrote: "The contributing circumstances have the potential for this to occur in any hospital under pressure."

"Now is the time for the NHS to recommit to the central importance of high-quality care and to foster a culture in which the delivery of this care is placed above all else."

The Francis Report released earlier this month investigated conditions at Stafford hospital that led to hundreds of unnecessary deaths between 2005 and 2008. Police are reviewing the report with a view to criminal charges.

But Unison's head of nursing Gail Adams said the review could not be allowed to shunt its recommendations, such as minimum training standards and a mandatory register of carers, "into the long grass.

"We already know what many of the failings are.

"The only thing that will address them is making the training mandatory and developing a regulatory system that's effective," she said.