healthmedicinet

26 February 2014
Last updated at 00:18 ET

A public inquiry was triggered at Stafford Hospital after a higher than expected number of deaths at the trust

The health secretary will announce later whether he is accepting a recommendation to close the trust that runs Stafford Hospital.

The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust was the focus of one of the NHS’s biggest scandals when hundreds more people died than would be expected.

Administrators want Jeremy Hunt to dissolve the trust and move key services to neighbouring hospitals.

Local people are planning a legal challenge if that decision is taken.

Last year’s Francis Inquiry highlighted “appalling and unnecessary suffering of hundreds of people” under the trust’s care, with some patients left lying in their own faeces for days, forced to drink water from vases and given the wrong medication.

The trust, which has been in administration since last April, has been declared financially and clinically unsustainable.

A report for health watchdog Monitor found it would not be able to make up its deficit because it did not provide enough specialised services.

It also said that, as a result, the trust would lose staff, which in turn would affect patient safety.

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TSA plans for Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust

• A new midwife-led maternity unit at Stafford to deal with half the number of 1,800 births the hospital does now. Difficult births will be dealt with at University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust (UHNS)
• Paediatric unit would be run in conjunction with the hospital’s 14-hour a day AE unit. Sick children will be sent to the UHNS for night-time treatment
• The critical care unit would allow patients to be treated at Stafford but only if necessary staff were in place
• Hospital management could be transferred to UHNS by next autumn

In January, Monitor approved plans laid out by Trust Special Administrators (TSA) a month earlier to abolish the trust. It would be the first foundation trust to be broken up.

Under the proposals, control of Stafford Hospital would go to the neighbouring University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust (UHNS) while Cannock Hospital would be run by the Royal Wolverhampton Trust.

Services, including maternity, paediatric and critical care units at Stafford, would be downgraded.

The TSA has previously said it would take three years, from the secretary of state’s agreement, to implement proposed changes at a total cost of £220m.

‘Exacerbate problems’

The Support Stafford Hospital group has said it will be “bitterly disappointed” if the decision is taken to axe the trust.

“We know that surrounding trusts are struggling be it financially and/or with capacity,” it said in a blog post on Monday.

“These problems have to be addressed.

“To send more patients to these trusts will only exacerbate problems for both our community and theirs.”

The government has made clear there will be a full parliamentary debate over the hospital “in due course”.

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