Apparently not:
The inquiry into "appalling standards of care" at Mid Staffordshire hospitals Trust found that patients were being moved from A & E units before they were properly assessed because of pressure to hit a Government-set target to treat them within four hours.
But new statistics suggest that other hospitals are also hurrying patients though casualty departments.
Many show large spikes in the numbers leaving A&E after three hours and 40 minutes.
The figures, obtained by the Liberal Democrats under the freedom of information act, show that 16 hospitals across England had higher spikes than Mid-Staffordshire last year in the minutes before the target was due to be missed.
At a handful of hospitals more than one in every five patients left casualty in the 20 minutes before the target was due.
At 20 hospitals, more than 15 per cent of patients left A&E during that period.
The now defunct Healthcare Commission highlighted concern that one of the factors which could have led to deaths was the pressure put on doctors to meet the four-hour target.
The investigation into the deaths, between 2005 and 2008, found that doctors were diverted from treating seriously ill patients to attend to minor injuries to ensure that the Trust did not miss the Government-set target.
The report also found that doctors were put under pressure to make decisions quickly and that some patients were not properly assessed before they were moved.
The health watchdog also found a lack of staff, poorly trained nurses and receptionists expected to assess of a patient's condition was serious, all of which it said could have contributed to the high number of deaths.
Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "Ministers claim that the tragic events at Mid Staffordshire were a one-off due to poor local management. But these figures suggest a widespread problem which must now be investigated.”
"The Government must admit that its obsession with targets is putting doctors and nurses under impossible pressure and patients' lives at risk.
"Patient safety should be the top priority for the NHS, not hitting targets."
Which is what the medical bloggers have been saying for years, but the “powers that be” have not listened, the “new” regulator, the Care Quality Commission is now responsible for Health and social care in England.
Do they have the intestinal fortitude to act on this information and lobby the Government in order to consign the “target led” philosophy of the NHS to the bin where it belongs, so that medics can return to treating patients to the best of their ability regardless of how long it takes?
Yet another “time will tell” post.
Angus
Angus
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