Mid-Staffs hospital trust put into administration

15 Apr 13
The troubled Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust has been placed in administration, regulator Monitor announced this afternoon.

By Vivienne Russell | 15 April 2013

The troubled Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust has been placed in administration, regulator Monitor announced this afternoon.

Dr Hugo Mascie-Taylor, a senior clinician and NHS manager, and Alan Bloom of consultancy Ernst & Young have been appointed trust special administrators. They will take over the running of the trust from tomorrow with the remainder of the executive reporting to them. Mid-Staffordshire is the first foundation trust to be subject to a special administration order.

Monitor’s decision follows the findings of a contingency planning team sent into the trust last September. It concluded that the trust was neither clinically nor financially sustainable in its current form. Mascie-Taylor chaired the clinical working group that reported into the CPT.

The two special administrators now have 45 working days to devise a sustainable way of providing services to patients. This will then be put out for public consultation. Services at the trusts’ two hospitals, Stafford and Cannock, will continue to run as normal.

Monitor chief executive David Bennett 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 ongoing.

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

Chris Hopson, director of the Foundation Trust Network, said he hoped the action would be another step towards resolving problems at the trust.

‘It is important, however, to highlight the work the current leadership team at Mid Staffs has done since 2008 to resolve issues at the trust including huge financial pressures,’ he added.

Mike Farrar, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said Monitor had been right to take ‘firm action’. He said: ‘We need to consider all the options and identify their merits and flaws.

‘We need to do more to support troubled trusts at the earliest possible stage to maintain high standards of care, rather than getting to the point where trusts find themselves facing administration. This requires better integration of services and a focus on people's care needs, rather than the location of buildings.’


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