Senior consultant voices new fears at Tameside hospital

The Dr Foster guide said the hospital had a high mortality rate

A senior consultant at Tameside General Hospital has told the BBC that he believes at least one or two out of every 100 deaths could be avoided.

Milton Pena, an orthopaedic surgeon, said he has gone public because he feels his concerns were not addressed.

For 2008/09, a patient safety table suggests 181 more patients may have died at Tameside than expected, giving it one of the nation's worst ratios.

Tameside Hospital said it is working to improve its mortality ratio.

The Greater Manchester area hospital also said it disputes Mr Pena's claims that his concerns have gone unanswered.

Mr Pena told BBC Panorama: "My conservative estimate, which I feel pretty certain is more or less accurate, that probably for every 100 patients who die at Tameside, perhaps one or two could be saved, but that is very conservative."

He said he is concerned that there is not enough qualified nurses on the wards to ensure adequate care.

'No dignity'

Mr Pena cited one recent example where 17 patients, many of them elderly and highly dependent, were under the care of just one qualified nurse.

Tameside is on our radar Gary Needle, Care Quality Commission Read Tameside Hospital's response to Panorama here

He also claims there is no dignity of care for some patients in an admissions and assessment unit. He said: "I can assure you that there is no dignity of care for many patients who simply wait in chairs for many, many hours."

The hospital said it has enough nursing staff and that patients only wait in chairs if it is comfortable for them, that those who need beds get them.

The medical intelligence company, Dr Foster, publishes an independent league table of patient safety in England annually and its 2009 report suggested that 181 more people died at Tameside Hospital than statistically expected.

The news prompted a public outcry and has led to calls for a full and open inquiry.

'On radar'

The hospital told BBC Panorama that it is working to make improvements and says that it has reduced its mortality ratio to close to the national average for the last three months.

Milton Pena was disciplined in 2006 for raising safety concerns

Based on the self-assessment process in place, the regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), rated Tameside as "good", but this was not subjected to an independent inspection in 2009.

In light of the Dr Foster report, the CQC has now placed the hospital under greater scrutiny.

"Tameside is on our radar," Gary Needle, the CQC's director of methods, told the BBC's Panorama. "We have started looking into that, we have a number of our specialist teams working with the trust to try and understand specific aspects of the mortality rate to understand why those death rates may be as they are."

Panorama: Trust Us, We're an NHS Hospital, BBC One, Monday, 8 March at 2030GMT.