Trust at centre of scandal officially no more
The trust at the centre of the Stafford Hospital scandal will be formally dissolved today after three years as a shell organisation.
Stafford Hospital, now renamed County Hospital and run by a different trust, was at the centre of a national NHS scandal in the late 2000s.
The hospital was run by the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust, which became a shell organisation on November 1 2014.
After that, services previously managed by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust (MSFT) were transferred to the management of University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) and The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT).
The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust have confirmed that the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation trust will officially cease to exist today.
An investigation was launched into the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust by regulators after records showed there were up to 1,200 more deaths than expected between 2005 and 2009.
It led to the Government calling for a public inquiry, which was spearheaded by Sir Robert Francis, whose report published in 2010 confirmed the fears of many patients and relatives revealing the full extent of substandard care.
Earlier this year, Sir Robert claimed that the possibility of a similar scandal happening again elsewhere is 'inevitable' due to a growing 'disconnect' between what was said about health care nationally and what patients were experiencing in waiting rooms, hospital hallways and packed out wards.
