‘Sorry’ just won’t do — heads must roll

WHO will take the blame for the breast screening scandal engulfing the Health Service? Who will put up their hand and say that yes, the buck stops with them?

So far, I’ve not heard a squeak out of senior management in the NHS, or Public Health England, the body responsible for overseeing the screening programme, to this effect.

And yet up to 270 women who missed out on a routine mammogram may have had their lives cut short.

That’s not just a ‘computer error’: it’s a shaming tragedy.

Someone, somewhere needs to publicly take responsibility and show in a clear and irrefutable way that those in the upper echelons of the NHS realise the gravity and magnitude of what’s happened.

Resignations in situations like this matter. It comes with the territory of holding a senior position. They show that a organisation that is trusted by the public — and funded by taxpayers — understands why an apology alone won’t do.

If this were a large private company, heads would have rolled by now. So why doesn’t it ever happen in the NHS?

Senior NHS managers command big salaries — often bigger than the prime minister.

While they bank the cash, it seems too many eschew the responsibility. And when it all goes pear-shaped, they shrug their shoulders, dismiss tragedies as ‘mistakes’, offer victims platitudes and promise lessons will be learned.

That’s just not good enough.