Troubled Stafford Hospital shake-up
A massive shake-up plan to transform the fortunes of troubled Stafford Hospital has been revealed.
A massive shake-up plan to transform the fortunes of troubled Stafford Hospital has been revealed.
Unveiling the 107-point plan yesterday Eric Morton, interim chief executive for Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, said he hoped Stafford would become a leading hospital in the future.
The transformation plan includes a series of objectives and actions which the trust has drawn up in response to the damning Healthcare Commission report into standards of care at the hospital.
Mr Morton said the majority of the actions would be completed within the next eight months and he said he hoped the action plan would be "a line in the sand" to allow the hospital to move forward.
It includes 19 ways of improving staffing at the hospital, changes to how the trust is governed, alterations to the hospital building and a commitment to better patient care and increased openness. It also suggests the creation of a patient and elderly persons champion on the hospital board.
It also includes a plan to move the emergency assessment unit from the first floor to the groundfloor, closer to A&E.
There will also be a review of the clinical decisions unit which the Healthcare Commission found was being used as a place to dump patients at risk of breaching the four-hour A&E time limit. Mr Morton said it was possible the CDU would be axed.
The plan, called Confidence in Care, was launched yesterday with a series of roadshows and meetings with staff. A glossy summary will also be sent to thousands of trust members and partner agencies and be available in the hospital.
Unveiling the plan Eric Morton accepted the improvements were what hospitals generally should be doing but he said: "It's clear that for a period of time the hospital lost its way.
"They didn't put patient safety and the care they receive at the top of the agenda.
"We clearly have some issues that we need to address and what we are doing here is to be as open as we possibly can about the actions we are trying to take."
Mr Morton said the cost of the improvements could run into "seven figures" and he expected it could be done without any Government help.
