STEPHEN GLOVER: Until we admit that there is something rotten at heart of the NHS, these scandals will never stop
Will we ever wake up to what is going on?
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust stands accused of causing the deaths of more than 200 babies and nine mothers, and has left other children with terrible permanent injuries.
An official report lays bare scarcely credible, monumental incompetence over a 20-year period. It says 'systemic change' is needed after repeated blunders were ignored, and mothers were blamed when their babies died.
What can be said with certainty is that it will happen again. Not at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, perhaps, and conceivably not at a maternity unit.
But that there will be other instances of numerous needless deaths at the hands of the NHS is beyond doubt.
We can be sure about this because it has happened so often in the recent past. The tragic cases investigated by previous official reports tell remarkably similar stories.
To start with, there is medical ineptitude on an epic scale.
Then there is secrecy, mendacity and sometimes threats on the part of the NHS authorities as they try to block inconvenient questions by relatives or journalists.
Doctors respond as though they assume they know best, and resent their methods being interrogated.
Those who have lost loved ones hold copies of the Ockenden report. Stephen Glover says it is 'wrong' for politicians to say the NHS offers unparalleled service and that its deficiencies can be addressed by throwing more money at it
Consider this: if two brave mothers hadn't had the temerity to take on the might of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, we would almost certainly be unaware of this particular scandal.
I wonder how many other hospitals are concealing dark secrets that will never come to light.
We know enough from previous cases to be able to say that there is something rotten at the heart of the NHS. The evidence is overwhelming. It is also deeply shaming.
There were possibly as many as 1,200 unnecessary deaths at Stafford Hospital — not very far from Shrewsbury, as it happens — between 2005 and 2009.
