Protest and Resignations

As the date of the report release drew close in early 2009 everyone grew more agitated. The pressure group wanted resignations. There was a protest in the town square involving an interesting collection of people. All called for the sacking of Martin Yeates and Toni Brisby. In this public protest CuretheNHS, were supported by the Socialist workers party and the Green Party, and were planning to meet up with Bill Cash later on.  

The decision had already been made by Monitor that the CEO should go, and both he and the Chair stepped down a couple of weeks before the release of the report.

The Staff at the hospital were dismayed by this. There was a meeting in which hundreds of them expressed their support for Martin Yeates and Toni Brisby, and their anger at the way in which the hospital was being portrayed. The staff were then publicly attacked in the local press for being in denial, because of their allegiance to the management. This set up bad feeling between the staff and the pressure group which persists to this day.