The latest report from the inquiry into events at Stafford Hospital show an appalling catalogue of neglect and abuse.
As many as 1200 patients may have lost their lives as a result and many more have been traumatised by their experience.
Yet none of the managers responsible are to be held to account. We believe their are sufficient grounds for criminal charges, just as there would be if the victims had been children or even dogs and cats.
It is an absolute disgrace that this is not happening already and graphically demonstrates that in the eyes of the government elderly people just do not count.
Whilst there will be some medical staff guilty of misconduct we also believe that the nurses in particular have been badly let down by their own professional body. Their own Chief Executive visited the hospital while all this was going on but allowed himself to be lead by the nose around the best wards and then wrote a fulsome letter of praise to the hospital.
In an interview on Radio Stoke he refused to admit that this letter was wrong, being more interested in covering his own backside than protecting and supporting the nurses.
This is the largest number of civilian deaths in the UK since the second world war and no-one is being held to account, because the victims were elderly.
