NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh criticised Mid Staffordshire foundation trust’s lax attitude to the quality of its services.
Sir Bruce said: ”I’m pretty proud of the NHS but I’m really stunned by this report.

”I think we accept the risk of disease and that treatment carries risk but what we don’t expect is that those who are seeking to help will actually let us down.”
He said the investigation had revealed ”a complete failure of leadership” and a ”trust board that is completely out of touch with its organisation”.

He said: ”There has been an unacceptably casual approach to assessing the performance of the organisation itself. It’s the moral, professional and social responsibility of healthcare professionals to know what they do and how well they do it.

”That response extends to organisations and if you can’t answer those questions you should not be doing it.”

Sir Bruce published mortality rates for knee and hip replacements as well as emergency and elective abdominal aortic aneurysm repair on NHS Choices in July in a bid to boost patient choice.

He pointed to plans to publish further data, along with NHS care quality initiatives.

”We think quality accounts will help focus trusts on the quality of care that they provide,” he said.

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Mid Staffordshire crisis: quality of care sacrificed in FT bid