Government will need to make health policy U turns after Francis report, says safety expert

Patient safety campaigners have called on the government to accept all the recommendations of the public inquiry into the events at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2009 when they are published on 6 February, even if this means changing its current policy.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of the patients’ charity Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA), said that there were some “pretty strong clues” as to what the report was likely to recommend from the closing statements of the inquiry’s chairman, Robert Francis QC, and the counsel to the inquiry, Tom Kark QC.

Many of the recommendations would be “contrary to the current direction of travel of the government,” believes Walsh. In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary for England, Walsh asked for “an assurance that you will implement …