Stafford Hospital Protest

Health campaigners who are demanding that senior managers are held to account for the Stafford Hospital ``disaster'' have stepped up their calls for the resignation of NHS boss Sir David Nicholson.

 Cure the NHS have staged a silent protest outside today's meeting of the NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) in Manchester. Many of them have relatives who died because of neglect at Stafford between 2005 and 2009.

The protest has also seen the group lobbying individual members of the board to themselves ask Sir David to resign.
 
Sir David, who heads the NHS CB, faced calls to quit earlier this month following the publication of the Francis Report into serious failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2009.
 
But last week, Prime Minister David Cameron said Sir David, who had direct responsibility for the trust as head of its regional health authority for part of the period when patients were neglected and mistreated, had already acknowledged mistakes made by the authority under his leadership and ``properly'' apologised for them.
 
Julie Bailey, who set up Cure the NHS after her mother Bella died at Stafford Hospital in 2007, claimed that neither the public nor staff in the NHS wanted Sir David to stay in his post.
 
``We want his resignation, if not his sacking,'' said Ms Bailey.
 
``He has brought the NHS into disrepute.
 
``We are planning to lobby members of the board to call for him to resign.''