MPs want NHS chief’s resignation

Sixteen MPs, including 12 members of the Conservative Party, have signed a motion calling Sir David Nicholson to step down as the head of the NHS because of the Mid Staffordshire scandal. 

The MPs have raised “very serious concerns” and believe that it is a question of “accountability” and that Sir David’s position is “completely unacceptable”.

“Unless he gives a good account of the disastrous failings and his role, he really will have to go”, said a minister.

However, Prime Minister David Cameron has supported Nicholson to remain in the position and said: “We support the NHS and its founding principles, but not everything in the NHS is right.”

Sir David Nicholson has served as the chief executive of NHS since 2006 and is the head of NHS commissioning board, the strategic health authority in charge of overseeing the hospitals in Mid Staffordshire.

He faces the brunt of campaigners who are gathering outside the offices of the NHS commissioning board in Manchester demanding his resignation.

They are calling him “the man with no shame” and saying “too many deaths, no accountability”.

After the Francis Inquiry that looked into the Mid Staffordshire Scandal between 2005 and 2009, numbers reveal around 1,200 people died at Stafford Hospital as a result of poor care. 

Friends and families of victims believe that NHS standards have declined over the years and that he, as the chief executive, is accountable for the failings.

Sir David has apologised to the relatives of the victims, but has resisted the pressure from back-bench MPs for him to resign. 

In the wake of the Stafford Hospital scandal, 28 hospitals across the country have had complaints of neglect lodged against them.

Aastha Gill