Stafford Hospital's A&E now ready to open overnight

Stafford Hospital's A&E is now ready to reopen overnight, bosses revealed today after months of work to improve services.

The scandal-hit hospital closed A&E in December due to concerns over staffing, when chief executive Lyn Hill-Tout said she could not guarantee patient safety. But board members met yesterday and revealed they have now hit almost all the criteria needed to run a 24-hour operation.

The final decision will be made by healthcare commissioners on Tuesday.

It is hoped it will reopen overnight in October, a date already behind the original estimate of June.

Chris Holt, associate director of operations at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The criteria set have been met and where they have not, we can confirm suitable actions are in place. It's now a question for commissioners to determine what service they want.

Mrs Hill-Tout added: "We as a board would not reopen without approval of the commissioners.

If we went ahead and re-opened, the commissioners could vary the contract with us and decommission the service. What we are saying is we have met the reopening criteria."

The department closed between 10pm and 8am last December. The only target not hit is consolidating the number of middle-grade doctors. Mr Holt added: "We have recruited three middle-grade locums and they will remain with us until we have trained staff – we have got mitigation in place."

Health bosses said they had seen an overall reduction in patients using A&E for minor injury or illnesses during the overnight closure period.