Hospitals are 'very bad places' for millions of older people, NHS chair says "If you think about the average general hospital now, something like 40 per cent of the patients will have some form of dementia," he said. They are very bad places for old, frail people. We need to find alternatives. Sir David will take over the allocation of the NHS budget through the commissioning board in April as part of the Government's health reforms. Last night, Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, said there is poor care "dotted" all over the NHS of the kind that was uncovered at Stafford Hospital. Between 400 and 1,200 more patients died than expected at the hospital due to poor care. Failures at the hospital included patients left in soiled bed sheets and lacking pain relief. "I think we are going to have a huge debate in the next few months... about how we return all parts of the NHS to its core values of care and compassion, which are at the heart of the reason why it was set up," Mr Hunt told The Guardian. Whilst we don't believe there is anywhere else that has got the problems that Stafford hospital [had], everyone can sense that there are little bits of Stafford dotted around the system. So we have a big debate about values and how we do that. An inquiry into the problems at Mid Stafforshire, chaired by Robert Francis QC, is due to report within weeks.