News / Mid Staffs dissolution gets go-ahead

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is to be dissolved, following health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s decision to accept the Trust Special Administrators’ (TSA) recommendations.

The TSAs’ recommendations were included in their final report, published at the end of 2013, and were approved by regulator Monitor in January.

The decision means that Stafford Hospital (pictured) will be operated by University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust, while Cannock Chase Hospital will be run by the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.

Mr Hunt said: ‘Under this model, most patient visits – about 90% – will continue to take place at Stafford and Cannock hospitals.’

A ‘small minority’ of services will move away from Stafford Hospital. However the health secretary said he had asked NHS England to identify whether a consultant-led obstetrics unit could be sustained at Mid-Staffs safely. The TSAs’ recommendation had been for a midwife-led unit, allowing for births in ‘up to half of circumstances’.

The TSA report said that if nothing was done, the trust’s annual deficit in 2017/18 would be in excess of £40m. Mr Hunt said that he was satisfied the new model ‘can be a financially sustainable one’.

TSA Alan Bloom said the administrator had been working with the three trusts in recent weeks to prepare to implement the dissolution proposals if the health secretary approved the report. ‘[The] decision means that our joint working will intensify over the coming months as the TSA process moves into the next phase,’ he said.