Yesterday Jeremy Hunt appeared on several broadcast channels responding to the report on the Stafford Hospital promising to make a number of changes in the light of the failure by the Trust running the Hospital. Amongst other matters that he spoke about is his intention to fine Trusts that do not fulfil minimum standards of care. The idea of fining organisations that are publicly funded, rarely makes any sense. Even fining businesses often leads to the customers paying for the failure, rather than those who were incompetent. Clearly fines are a last resort even in the minds of a publicly accountable politician who wants to be able to show that he has acted decisively against those who failed. Let us ensure that they are made to pay! Clearly we do need sanctions for people who fail to deliver on their obligations. It is for this reason that many people are still very angry with the Governments for the failure to deal with the banks and financial institutions that led to the financial crash of 2008. It is clear that when an individual is damaged by an organisation that is meant to provide care, that some level of reparation is needed. Politicians often express despair at the extent to which society has become litigious, helped along by adverts for no win – no fee solicitors on the leaflets produced by many of the hospital trusts themselves. There are alternatives to this direction of travel, but sadly far too many of our politicians are financially implicated in the companies concerned, for a U turn to be easily achieved.

It is not widely appreciated, but if charities fail and there has been incompetence shown by the Trustees, they can be held personally liable and indeed in the rare cases where this does happen, there are even rarer cases of court cases against Trustees to repay the litigants who have been affected by their decision making. If businesses fail there are many more examples where courts award costs and penalties against directors for their failure to follow due process. The most widely understood examples include health and safety prosecutions following injury and even death by employees. When it comes to publicly funded organisations such as hospitals or councils, we do hear of examples where the executive leadership can lose their jobs. It is not uncommon for the Government to fine organisations like this, presumably in the same way that Jeremy Hunt intends to fine underperforming hospitals. However the money which has been given to the organisation to help them deliver vital public services, can only be withdrawn if the services are then cut. The money is then returned to the centralised government and the patients or residents gain nothing.

If Jeremy Hunt is serious about using financial penalties to punish those running our hospitals, he needs to prosecute the board members personally. This would at least place these public services and public servants in the same place as charities and private companies. However lets not stop there, indeed lets not even start there. Why not create the legislation so that if we have a repeat of the West Coastway franchise fiasco, the Transport Secretary is fined personally and potentially loses his or her house. If the DWP wastes Millions on fruitless computer systems, then lets see Iain Duncan Smith in Court and his own personal finances put at risk. Many of us would like to see our Ministers take responsibility for failure and incompetence shown in their departments. Most of us would be grateful for an apology, rather than obfuscation and defensiveness. Occasionally a resignation would be the appropriate response. However if people like Jeremy Hunt believe that fining failures is the best approach lets hear him argue for that to begin in the Cabinet!