Tameside Hospital families meet to discuss management

Days after a CQC ultimatum, hospital bosses appointed 33 extra nurses

Relatives of patients who died at Tameside Hospital are meeting to call for a change of management.

The hospital was criticised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for not ensuring adequate staffing levels after allegations of patient neglect.

Patients died from post-operative infections and had suffered bedsores.

Families have said they were angry that staffing levels were only improved in April after the CQC gave the hospital a month to make improvements.

Maria Theofilous's father, Petros Savva, died 10 weeks after a hip operation in 2007, having contracted various infections including MRSA and gangrene.

We hope to begin to restore public confidence in the trust and help us build a strong and successful future for Tameside Hospital Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust spokesman

Ms Theofilous said: "Why did it take the CQC to get the management to make these changes?

"Why didn't they do it eight years ago and there wouldn't have been so many deaths?"

The hospital appointed 33 new nurses within days of the CQC issuing its ultimatum on 1 April.

"We've had a campaign and petition to get better management," Ms Theofilous added.

"The aftercare for my father was all wrong and they let us down."

'Restore confidence'

The meeting, which will take place later, has been organised by independent health watchdog the Local Involvement Network and follows a meeting in January attended by the hospital, which broke down in acrimony.

A spokesman for Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which will not be represented at the meeting, said: "May we take this opportunity again to apologise to the family of Petros Savva.

"We would like to reassure them, as we hopefully did when we last wrote to them in 2009, that action has been taken to address the shortcomings in communication and care which Mr Savva and his family unfortunately experienced in 2007.

"We conducted a review culminating in a number of steps being taken to reduce the likelihood of these problems happening again.

"By taking on board the views of the people living in the communities we serve, we hope to begin to restore public confidence in the trust and help us build a strong and successful future for Tameside Hospital."