Supporters' tears for Stafford Hospital as downgrading announced

'Gutted' campaigners today said the heart was being ripped out of Stafford after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed the town's hospital will be downgraded.

Members of Support Stafford Hospital gathered at the Morris Man pub as the news broke yesterday lunchtime.

There was raw emotion on display. Frustration and anger as campaigners learned that the hospital will lose its inpatient paediatrics and the A&E department will be permanently reduced to 14-hour opening as Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is dissolved.

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Campaign group volunteer Shirley Butler, aged 62, said: "We are totally gutted. We thought he'd give us a bit more than he did.

"I think the bit about the review into a consultant -led maternity is a bit of a sweetener really to keep us happy. The fight will carry on."

Campaigner Glenys Haughton added: "You can't have a maternity unit without a paediatrics ward. They are ripping the heart out of Stafford."

Cure the NHS member Gillian Peacham, aged 73, who was forced to move house after falling into financial hardship when her husband, Arthur, died in Stafford Hospital after being admitted for back pain, said she had 'mixed feelings' at the end of a 'long process'.

Jeremy Lefroy, MP for Stafford, reacts to the decision to dissolve the Mid Staffordshire Trust.

Mr Peacham died, aged 68 on March 19, 2006 after almost four months in hospital during which time he contracted the infection C Difficile.

She said: "I do feel they should never have been given foundation trust status and the money that was spent on that could have been used to improve cleaning and would have saved people like my husband.

"We just have to wait and see what happens next but it doesn't change how I feel." Mrs Peacham, of Penkridge, added: "I'm still angry about what happened and I still have nightmares about the way my husband was treated so this announcement does not change any of that."

• Stafford Hospital services stripped as NHS trust to be dissolved

Stafford Borough Council leader Mike Heenan insisted there was 'much left to play for' and revealed he had raised the importance of a consultant-maternity unit with Prime Minister David Cameron in recent weeks. He said he had taken 'a bit of comfort' from the announcement from the Prime Minister over the possibility of consultant-led obstetrics remaining.

Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy said he agreed with the decision to dissolve the trust, adding: "It could not have continued in a financially sustainable way. However, we must now see a merger with UHNS and Royal Wolverhampton and not a takeover."

Reacting to the move, Cannock Chase MP Aidan Burley said: "Ownership of our local hospital will be transferred to the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which will fully utilise the facility that currently lies half empty. Better than that, it will be refurbished and improved, and more services will be provided from it. Never again will Cannock Chase Hospital be neglected to the point of closure.

"No one should shed a tear about the dissolution of a horribly failing NHS trust which allowed hundreds of patients to die needlessly and buildings such as Cannock Hospital to decay and decline to the point of near closure."

And Philip Atkins, Leader of Staffordshire County Council, said : The decision to dissolve Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust means it is absolutely crucial that all partners involved in the NHS now pull together and deliver what is best for the people of Staffordshire,"