London: An NRI in Britain has lifted the lid on some administrative practices, including "savage reduction" in medical staffers in a UK national hospital that may have led to hundreds of deaths there.
Pradip Singh, a senior consultant, has used the protection of the House of Commons all-party health committee to tell his story of what went wrong at Stafford Hospital after a "savage reduction in staff".
In documents lodged with the select committee, 48-year-old Singh noted how he first warned managers and fellow consultants of dangers as long as 2005 in the UK National Health Service hospital.
Singh, a gastroenterologist said in his evidence to MPs "over the years, many clinicians had noticed deterioration in the standards of patient care which became particularly acute about three years ago when major cut backs were made in staffing numbers. This included a reduction in the number of nursing staff."
He claimed following budget cuts, his department experienced "dozens of serious adverse clinical incidents resulting from abysmal secretarial support".
In one case, he said, a patient who had a treatable tumour in his pancreas ended up developing inoperable cancer after a report was lost.
He said problems persist three months after the publication of a report by the Healthcare Commission in March, which described standards of care at the hospital as "appalling".
Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital has denied the allegation saying "the adverse incidents were unsubstantiated".
In March, two weeks after the watchdog's report was published, Singh was suspended for allegedly verbally abusing a nurse. He was reinstated a week later. He said it was an attempt by the Trust to intimidate him. He is fighting to get the charges quashed.