THIS week has seen the publication of another damning report on Basildon Hospital following two serious incidents involving children.

I make no apology for being very critical of the management of Basildon Hospital in the past. The hospital has been consistently failing to meet minimum care standards since 2009.

Sadly, senior management failed to respond to the challenge and take the necessary action to ensure that all patients at Basildon got the care they deserved.

The care regulator has been in and out of Basildon, and has generated high quality reports which have highlighted where the failings are. Such reports should have been met with a determination for action.

Instead, senior executives showed complacency and the board simply failed to give appropriate challenges to make sure deficiencies were addressed.

That simply has to change. The trust is now under new management and the response to this report has been very refreshing.

There was an immediate determination to get to the bottom of what went wrong and an openness and honesty in facing up to failure, which sits in marked contrast to the previous regime.

I am in no doubt both the chairman and chief executive are determined to drive improvements in performance. But, as the organisation has been so tolerant of failure in the past, change will not happen overnight.

However, there are many good and dedicated staff at Basildon who have been crying out for good leadership. A number of them have written to me pointing out the failings.

There may well be more bad news before we have good, but I am more optimistic than I have been for some time about the hospital.

It was a good hospital once and, with strong leadership and a determination to tackle bad practice, it can be again.