Scandal-hit Stafford Hospital to be downgraded
The Midlands' most criticised hospital is to be downgraded with its services split between neighbouring authorities, administrators announced today.
In-patient paediatrics will disappear and both critical care and maternity services will be downgraded at Stafford Hospital, which has been at the centre of a national storm over death rates and patient care.
The administrators at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust today published their masterplan for the future of Stafford and Cannock hospitals.
A&E at Stafford will remain as it is and a midwife-led unit capable of delivering half of all births currently handled there will be run. Previously the maternity unit at Stafford was in line to be axed under initial plans.
Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust which runs the hospitals will be dissolved with Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals Trust taking over Cannock and University Hospital Of North Staffordshire NHS Trust running Stafford.
The transformation will take three years but staff could be transferred as soon as autumn next year. Administrator Hugo Mascie-Taylor said: "We worked very closely with local trusts and would like to thank them for their suggestions."
The process will still mean the hospitals have a £14.9 million annual deficit.
