Did Sir Liam really make reference to " 'incredulous' mistakes," as stated in the article? I should have thought that someone of his status and in his position would have been better educated. He may have been incredulous but the mistakes themselves were surely "incredible."

Ger, Glossop, Derbyshire

I don's want to knock the excellent care given by nurses and doctors but two things I recall during my 5 day stay in a Surrey hospital are this (1) the Filipino lady who was serving breakfast who picked her feet before carrying on serving breakfast without washing her hands ("No none for me thanks") and (2) The fact that the ward I was in was for people with breathing problems and yet they had run out of oxygen and there was'tn even one nurse in the whole wing for a period on a sunday night. Other than that it was fine.

John, Surrey, UK

Your average bank cashier (and other bank employees) face either 5 or 14 years compulsory imprisonment for certain errors (or deliberate actions). No possibility of lesser sentance in such cases. Make hospital employees equally liable.

D Brown, Aude, France

Lack of hand hygiene is the single most important factor for MRSA and other hospital infections, according to the WHO. Hand hygiene standards compliance is below 40%. Enforcement and compliance are *completely*controllable* and any hospital failing to enforce these standards should suffer meaningful consequences, fiscal or otherwise, and perfect compliance should be richly rewarded. Only then will the infections rate decline. Draconian? I'm afraid it's quite literally a matter of life and death.

steve, essex,

I certainly don't agree with the ludicrous suggestion of fining hospitals. It would just encourage devious ways to cover things up along with other practices that could worsen the situation for patients.

It's about time that medics started looking at the reason why hospital-acquired infections happen. I understood that at the root of it is the over-prescription of antibiotics, creating greater resistance to them. If this is the case, then it's about time they seriously considered other, more natural means of treating illnesses and infections. They exist, they haven't been scientifically tested of course, but they work. Who's going to test a product that they can't make money from? Certainly not the drugs companies.

Lesley, dartford, uk

Fining hospitals must be the stupidest idea yet. You cannot fine hospitals without reducing patient care. Much better to fine the person responsible. Who is that? I think it is the Minister of Health.

Charles Bockett-Pugh, Sandhurst,

Doesn't he existence of free healthcare in the Western World represent a huge embarrassment to the USA.
It suits America to ruin it in Britain to remove that embarrassment.
Since we are just an American appendage our politicians of whatever shade just obey whatever American nods and winks.
It is the open border multi culture that is draining the NHS.
Technically speaking all the 30 million HIV sufferers of the sub Sahara have a legitimate right to our healthcare simply on grounds of asylum and persecution. All they need do is get here.
The more third world Britain becomes the more unsustainable a health service will be.

Keith Bentham, Wigan, Lancs

Once again, what is the point of fining a public body thats funded by tax payers for criminal negligence against the public. In any case of corporate incompetence that results is injury, suffering or death to a member of the public there should be a simple two fold approach taken. Firstly the victim/s and/or their families should be paid appropriate compensation commensurate with the damage done to them and their families. Secondly and just as importantly, those responsible for allowing a problem like MRSA or Superbugs to flourish should be held accountable. A personal fine may be a suitable deterrent for criminal incompetence but a prison sentence would focus the mind much more for some of these NHS top execs. Only personal accountability will make public bodies such as the NHS, the Police or Local Councils and even private companies like British Airways clean up their act, not take risks or break the law.

Mike, Alicante, Spain

"minuscule", surely.

Heather Isaksen, Oxford,

I don't quite see why those in charge shouldn't face charges of GBH or murder in cases such as MRSA. Or is it that there is no-one accountable?

Roger Pearse, Ipswich,

I agree in principle, but this will mean that I (and other tax payers) end up paying for someone mistakes. So there has to be another solution. Pay a good salary to the old-fashioned matron types and give them the same authority they had 40 years ago. Insist on cleanliness as the first priority and get rid of those for good who do not perform.

Alan, Midlands,

Everyone seems to expect doctors to be superhuman, but just like everyone else if they do their job day in and day out they will always make a small proportion of mistakes. They can't be blamed for this! - we'd have no doctors left. If negligence cannot be proved, a doctor should have no liabilityif he makes honest mistakes. This should be made clear to patients; it's part of the risk they take on when going in to hospital.

Harriet, Ipswich, UK

As other commentators have noted, it will ultimately be the taxpayer who foots the bill, and of course, removing funding will hit patients as well. Obviously joined up thinking was not part of Donaldson's remit, and Carruthers demonstrated by his facile and unhelpful remarks, that he wasn't capable of providing a solution either. The only remedy is to fine perpetrators, all the way up to CEO. Insurance against the risk of such action should be mandatory for all managers, just as it is for medical and dental personnel. The insurers, by operating a penalty system for claims, could help to focus attention on carrying out procedures properly. On no account dismiss them - experience shows that such people almost invariably go on to find even more lucrative positions within the NHS in a dfferent Trust.

Bill Q, Derby,

another of labours poorly thought out plans for NHS

ravi, potters bar,

Agree with William of London. I've never understood the reasoning behind the fining of public bodies such as hospitals and the police. This simply means that they have a smaller budget to do what they are supposed to be doing. Surely the answer is to discipline or sack the persons responsible?

Asmodeus, London,

Charging hospitals for making patients sick ironically is the only solution to the problem of hospital aquired infection, and the imputus for the authority to sack those that do not follow procedure.
Its time to get tough, the death of three thousand demand no less

wayne, huntingdon, cambridgeshire

The NHS has only one source of income, the tax payer and ultimately therefore the tax payer foots the bill for all care provided by the NHS - good, bad or indifferent - to pretend that the tax payer will not fund bad care is disingenuous. And to withhold funds from a trust will simply delay care for those whom its supposed to serve. We need some people in charge who can think clearly.

william, London,

Encouraging a culture of blame and punishment will promote a massive increase in the practice of defensive medicine resulting in much higher costs for no increase in productivity.

Rewards and incentives for improvements in performance are much more likely to produce the desired results. This is not to reward bad performers for improving; it is possible to index performance and link incentives to that index.

Phil Constable, Jakarta,

What a stupid, retrograde and unjust suggestion!
Inanimate institutions cannot be incompetent , careless or reprehensible - people are. When or where such situations arise, it is the culprits who require to be punished by fines and/or dismissal. Fining the institution may let the sum be much larger but simply drains funds from the institution's assets, engorges the judiciary and treasury coffers and adds to the burden of the long-suffering taxpayer. Punish the culprits not the inanimate and therefor unblamable institution. Furthermore pump the resulting funds straight into (in this case) the NHS to help fund improvements.

JVC, Berkhamsted, UK