Mid-Staffordshire NHS trust placed in administration

Health regulator Monitor said on Monday that it had appointed “trust special administrators” to Mid-Staffs to “safeguard the future of health services” currently provided there.

Dr Hugo Mascie-Taylor, a clincial adviser to the contingency planning team at Monitor, and Alan Bloom of Ernst & Young will take over running of the trust from Tuesday. The current trust executive will report to them.

‘Unsustainable’

Monitor said it had taken the decision to place the trust in administration after concluding it was “neither clinically nor financially sustainable in its current form”.

The appointment was made following consultation with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, and an order authorising the appointment was laid in parliament on Monday.

We have taken this decision to make sure that patients in the Mid Staffordshire area have the services they need in the future. David Bennett, Monitor

The administrators will, over the next 45 days, devise a plan for the future of services at the trust, which may well involve services being dropped.

Services at the Stafford and Cannock hospitals will continue to run as normal until a final decision is reached.

‘Services they need’

David Bennett, chief executive of Monitor, said: “It is important that people in Mid Staffordshire know that they can still access services as usual at Stafford and Cannock hospitals while the trust special administration process is on-going.

“We have taken this decision to make sure that patients in the Mid Staffordshire area have the services they need in the future.

Read Health and Social Care Correspondent Victoria Macdonald's blog: Unanswered questions over Mid Staffs.

“It is now the role of the trust special administrators to work with the local community to decide the best way of delivering these services. There will be a full public consultation on any proposals for change.”

The decision follows the publishing of the Francis report into failings at Mid-Staffs, which concluded that patients were exposed to risk because of systemic failings “at every level”.