Pendle MP, Gordon Prentice, today told the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, that doctors and nurses are the "first line of whistleblowers" and should speak out when things go wrong or if they have concerns.

Johnson told the Commons the Healthcare Commission had today published its report on Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust following an extensive investigation focusing on A&E and emergency care at Stafford General Hospital. MPs heard a stark catalogue of examples of shockingly poor patient care.

The Healthcare Commission found there was a failure at every level of the organisation to treat emergency patients safely and with dignity together with a complete failure of management to address serious problems, monitor performance and to make themselves accountable to the local community.

The Pendle MP told the Commons: "Clinicians have a professional obligation to speak out when things are going wrong. If necessary, they should take these concerns to their professional bodies".

Speaking afterwards, the MP commented: "Detailed statistics were simply not collected from A&E Departments before 2001 but medical staff have always been able to register their concerns with their own professional bodies. Why that didn’t happen in Staffordshire is a complete mystery."

"There is also the puzzle about Staffordshire’s Foundation Trust status which was awarded in February 2008, after things were already going pear shaped."

"Given that the East Lancashire NHS Hospitals Trust is soon to apply for Foundation status we need to know if this is just a paper exercise or whether Monitor (the body that grants Foundation status) digs deeper."

Note to Editors: Following an unannounced visit to A & E recently the Healthcare Commission has stated that the trust has made significant improvements and Monitor, the Foundation Trust regulator has installed a new Chair and Chief executive to build on this work.

Lord Darzi’s Next Stage Review reiterated that quality of care – in particular, safety - is our number one priority for the NHS. Following his review, every trust board should now have robust monitoring and governance systems to identify any unusually high rates of mortality or serious incidents, and to take immediate action to address them.