Petition calls for debate on future of Stafford's County Hospital

A total of 1,512 people signed the petition, asking that the public be given a voice over whether or not full services should return to Stafford hospital from Royal Stoke, as well as asking whether Stafford's NHS should be fully publicly financed and managed or whether a private for-profit company should be involved.

The petition will be discussed at a cabinet meeting on August 3.

Mr Geoff Small, who submitted the petition, said: "It’s time we had a long-overdue national conversation about the NHS. Stafford Borough Council should let local people have their say and, in doing so, become an example that other local councils will inevitably have to follow, hopefully paving the way for a full national referendum that might ask multiple questions on issues such as the Private Finance Initiative – which is draining hospital budgets - and how we would like to see our NHS funded."

The cost of such a referendum to the council would be £140,000 according to papers released ahead of next weeks meeting.

Speaking in response to the petition, Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy said: "I am obviously fully supportive of the NHS offering our care services, so I am not sure where the question has come from regarding whether Stafford County Hospital should be privately funded.

"However, it is clear to see that people are concerned about the state of affairs involving the hospital at the moment, which I am obviously fully aware of and I support the public in airing those concerns.

"I am still campaigning to get the A&E reopened, which we are told at the moment is unlikely to happen, but we will keep pushing for that.

"I will be interested to see what the council says in relation to this petition."

In recent weeks the MP has also defiantly re-iterated his belief that County Hospital needs around-the-clock emergency care - which it has not had since it was reduced to 14 hours in 2011.

Last August the hospital's children's A&E closed suddenly, with trust bosses starting there was a lack of sufficient staff with very specific levels of paediatric and anaesthetic training, including resuscitation and life-support competencies.