The head of Staffordshire Police has been urged to consider whether former chief executive of shamed Stafford Hospital should face a corporate manslaughter charge.
David Kidney, MP for Stafford, has written to chief constable Mike Cunningham asking him to look at the latest Government inquiry report to consider whether there is a case to answer.
The move comes after Mr Kidney met with campaigners from Cure the NHS, who are outraged that none of the management team in charge when more than 400 patients needlessly died due to appalling conditions at Mid Staffordshire Trust have been called to account.
Mr Kidney said: “This latest report by Robert Francis QC is valuable because it names people responsible for certain problems.
“I wrote to the Staffordshire Police chief constable, asking him to read this report to see if there are any grounds to investigate any crime.
“Cure the NHS has asked about corporate manslaughter in regard to the former chief executive Martin Yeates and I have passed this information on.
“Members of the group would be willing to be the complainants if necessary. I will now wait to hear back from the Police.”
Mr Yeates headed the NHS Trust, which also runs Cannock Chase Hospital, when conditions and staffing were allowed to dramatically deteriorate when financial success and achieving Foundation status became a priority.
The Healthcare Commission reported that between 400 and 1,200 patients are believed to have died unnecessarily because of hospital failures, which included secretaries carrying out triage in A&E, elderly left unwashed for up to a month and patients so dehydrated that they were drinking out of vases.
Julie Bailey, Cure the NHS spokeswoman, said: “A full police investigation is the only proper way to investigate what went on at Stafford Hospital and to get at the truth and the real number of deaths that would not have happened had the patients been treated elsewhere.”
None of the management team has faced any kind of disciplinary action.
Mr Yeates stepped down while an internal investigation took place into his part in the failings, but he continued to receive his full salary of around £160,000 a year as an employee. He later resigned but it was claimed he walked away with a £350,000 tax-free lump sum.
Mr Kidney has also written to Health Secretary Andy Burnham calling for a full public inquiry.
