Meridian Basildon

The safety of patients is being questioned at two of the South East's hospitals. A Government led report has uncovered a series of failings at Medway NHS Trust and Basildon Hospital. Both are now on "special measures".

The review was carried out following high death rates. At Medway, concerns were also raised about low staffing levels and long waiting times in A&E. Managers have been told to make immediate improvements.

The investigation was announced in February after the scandal at Stafford Hospital where 1,200 patients died unnecessarily.

Tom Savvides has our report. He speaks to widow Carol Turner, Dr Gray Smith-Laing of Medway Maritime Hospital, Sir Bruce Keogh, and widow Sarah Fleming.

Poor care, medical mistakes and hundreds of unnecessary deaths was the verdict today on an Essex hospital trust. Basildon and Thurrock has been labelled as the worst of 14 trusts nationwide condemned in a in a report commissioned by the government and published today.

Sharon Thomas reports:

Jackie Doyle-Price MP for Thurrock in Essex has told ITV London that special measures due to be put on 14 hospital trusts "will work" because the Health Secretary has "outlined it himself".

David Cameron said the NHS was "completely safe" in the Government's hands after 11 failing hospitals were placed under "special measures" management.

Speaking after Sir Bruce Keogh's damning review of hospitals, the Prime Minister said: "I think everyone can have confidence in the NHS and everyone can have confidence that their local hospital either is a good hospital or is being turned around and being made into a good hospital.

"There is much to celebrate in our NHS and I love our NHS, and I never want to do it any harm, but we don't serve our NHS by covering up problems and difficulties and clearly there are some hospitals with too-high mortality rates."

ITV London's Rags Martel has reported that Basildon and Thurrock Hospital Trust was considered the "worst" out 14 trusts that had "fundamental breaches of care", a new report revealed today.

The Health Secretary has posted a tweet admitting things had "gone wrong" in the NHS, but he proclaimed that "transparency is disinfectant" after 11 hospitals were placed under "special measures" management:

• The Trust has an SHMI of 112 compared to a level of 92 for elective admissions.
• 92.3% of patients attended A&E within 4 hours in 2012- below the 95% target level.
• 66 out of 144 (46%) individual comments received on the patient voice helpline were negative.
• Frequent bed moves for inpatients.

• Inappropriate discharge arrangements
• Examples of a lack of compassion from some staff
• PALS appearing to serve the hospital rather than the patient.
• An absence of organisational stability and frequent external reviews have led to a lack of clear prioritisation on improvement plans.

• There is a lack of clarity of governance.
• A focus on quality is still being developed.
• There is a gap between ward level and Board level in terms of understanding of quality governance arrangements.

High mortality, poor infection control and concerns over clinical leadership have been attributed to Basildon and Thurrock Hospital Trust's "fundamental breach of care" today.

According to Sir Bruce Keogh's report: