" If yuri gagarin had not made this flight I would not have flown to the moon , " said us astronaut thomas stafford , commander on the first us lunar landing in 1969 .
He told the inquiry that the nhs needed to learn lessons from " the stafford disaster " and use them to improve how healthcare is regulated , to ensure that a similar scandal cannot happen again .
There has been much discussion of the scandal at stafford hospital in the english west midlands , where patients were maltreated and death rates were high .
Of course , the stafford managers said they cared about the patients , but their real priority was reducing costs , which they did by cutting the nursing staff .
An investigation is under way into how twin newborn boys died 11 days ago after a catastrophic medical blunder at stafford hospital , just days before a public inquiry opened into its " appalling " care .
The incident , which was disclosed only today , will raise fresh questions about the quality of care at stafford hospital and the nhs 's determination to improve patient safety .