The public inquiry into Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust has been held up by the Department of Health’s failure to disclose relevant documents until last month, despite being asked for them last July.
Inquiry counsel Tom Kark told a hearing last week it was “not feasible” to begin taking evidence from DH witnesses on 13 June as planned. These are highly likely to include NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson. Counsel for the DH Gerard Clarke said the DH had been awaiting guidance from the inquiry team.
The inquiry has now been supplied with more than 2,500 documents from the DH, including email correspondence, and must study it before deciding which of the 42 senior executives it has put on notice to call as witnesses.
Chairman Robert Francis called the delay “disappointing and surprising” and said he would consult with the inquiry team before announcing a revised timetable.
Mr Kark told the inquiry: “Given that the Department of Health is the sponsoring department for this public inquiry, and had been engaged with it from the beginning, we find the fact that the disclosure of documents from the Department is still ongoing and has been performed in the way that it has been performed extremely troubling.”
Mr Clarke, the DH counsel, said the delay was due to a misunderstanding, and the DH had been waiting for guidance from the inquiry. He said: “We do regret the situation which the inquiry is placed in, but as I say, we don’t agree that this is something which reflects either a lack of openness on the part of the Department or indeed a failure to apply adequate resources because it’s been a very significant task and very significant resources have been devoted to it, at a time when the Department has very significant demands on its limited resources.”
2 Readers' comments