'We have had 10 years of failure' – Hospital bosses pressed over shocking Dispatches scenes

Leading health officials from Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) have been quizzed by councillors from the county's Joint Health Overview Scrutiny Committee.

But SaTH's chief executive Louise Barnett, who announced she was stepping down earlier this week, sent her apologies, and was not present for the meeting.

The trust, which manages both Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and Princess Royal Hospital Telford (PRH), was represented by its medical director John Jones, and director of nursing, Hayley Flavell.

The committee was seeking answers over the shocking scenes revealed in the Channel Four programme, as well as details on the trust's progress on improvements after Care Quality Commission inspectors rated is as 'requires improvement'.

Scrutiny committee member, David Sandbach, the former chief executive of PRH, said the trust had been failing since 2014 – and asked why it is still rated as 'requiring improvement' after all that time.

Responding, Mr Jones first addressed the detail of the Dispatches programme, saying: "We agree with what is said to us, that particularly watching the Dispatches programme we completely understand the alarming nature of it and the impact it will have on patients – current and future.

"We do not consider the things seen on that programme to be acceptable."

But, he said that the reason for the CQC rating was simply because the trust still needs to get better – saying that throughout the period the organisation has struggled to improve its emergency and urgent care.

He said: "The simple answer is that we have always required improvement during that period, and the focus of what has required improvement has changed a bit during that time, but has always been particularly focussed on how we manage people who require urgent or emergency care.