Nurses are suspended by Stafford Hospital

Cure the NHS says better monitoring is needed as up some nurses are suspended at Stafford Hospital

Health officials have confirmed a number of nurses at Stafford Hospital have been suspended by managers in the last six months.

Managers said the suspensions were as a result of reviews of working practices and patient complaints.

In 2009 a Healthcare Commission report cited poor care at the hospital.

Cure the NHS, a group made up of relatives of people who died at the hospital, said better monitoring of nurses was needed.

Later inquiries found there was no reliable evidence to determine the actual number of patients who may have died as a result of poor care.

The hospital said for confidentiality reasons it would not confirm the precise number of suspensions but director of nursing Colin Ovington said the action would not necessarily lead to dismissals.

He said: "This is not about people who are guilty of doing anything wrong at this stage, it is about helping us understand what's been happening with some areas of practice.

"What we will then be able to do is bring many of those nurses back into work, with support, to become better practitioners."

Julie Bailey from Cure the NHS said a fundamental problem at the hospital was how well nurses were trained and supported.

"We're not being able to monitor them as much as we should do," she said.

"Some of them are just not getting the support they should once they are a student or newly-qualified."