Too many doctors kept their heads down when things went wrong at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, according to the prime minister, who has promised action to prevent the “horrific abuse” that took place there from happening again.

David Cameron made a statement in the House of Commons on 6 February, shortly after the Francis report was published, and expressed his anger at what transpired at the trust between 2005 and 2009.

He announced that he had asked the NHS’s main regulator, the Care Quality Commission, to create a new post of chief inspector of hospitals by the autumn.

The prime minister apologised to the families of patients who suffered “horrific …