NHS chief in gaffe over 'killer nurses'

An NHS Trust chairman is today being urged to resign after telling a patient's grieving daughter that agency nurses "kill more people than they save".

Barrie Blower made the comment to a woman whose mother had died from cancer. Tracy Davies, 42, had a three-hour meeting with the chairman to discuss the death of her mother Shirley Sargent at Walsall Manor Hospital in December.

Mrs Davies secretly recorded the conversation so Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust could not retract any statements.

Half way through their talk Mr Blower told her: "It's an awful set-up. We advertise in the Philippines and in India to attract nurses to be attached to the hospital to try and get rid of these agency people.

"They kill more people than they bloody save, these do. It's an awful bloody setup but we've got to have them."

Union bosses have called for him to step down following his "ludicrous" claims.

Mr Blower has retracted his statement and apologised, saying: "I was trying to put the family at ease by empathising with them about how difficult it can be to deal with a number of different agency staff.

"The way I chose to express this was completely inappropriate and inaccurate and I withdraw it unreservedly."