Extra £10m handed to crisis-hit Stafford Hospital

Millions of pounds has been taken away from NHS trusts in the Black Country to shore up the finances at troubled Stafford Hospital, a public inquiry has heard.

The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Stafford Hospital and is at the centre of an inquiry into appalling care, has been bailed out with a fresh £10 million handout in order to help it cope with the costs of the on-going crisis there.

The cash, for the 2010/11 financial year, comes after the hospital was handed £4.5m in the previous year.

The money was paid to the hospital by the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority whose chief executive, Professor Ian Cumming, gave evidence to the Francis Inquiry yesterday.

He told the inquiry the money for this year was paid by taking a one per cent slice from every primary care trust in the Midlands region in order to create the fund.

Mr Cumming accepted the move to bail out the hospital was "unprecedented" but he said it was vital to help the trust improve.

He told the inquiry the move had meant there was £10m less in the Midlands' economy but he said: "These were absolutely exceptional circumstances."

Mr Cumming said the hospital was "inefficient" in the past and "should never have become a Foundation Trust."

He said: "This was a decision we made at the board of the SHA because we felt it was in the best interests of the population of Stafford and surrounds."

Mr Cumming said that had the SHA refused to help the hospital it would have seen the closure of some services or even the hospital as a whole.

Despite the cash, the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust has still recorded a budget black hole of around £14.5m meaning the trust has swallowed £29m of taxpayers cash above its budget in the last two years.

Bosses at the hospital say the extra cost is due to the efforts to transform the hospital's fortunes as well as the on-going costs of the public inquiry. The underlying deficit at the hospital is thought to be £17.5m a year.