£43m revamp of Stafford Hospital to create new facilities and dozens of jobs

A new elderly care unit will be created, while wards will be modernised as part of a £220m cash injection in hospitals around the region to cope with the downgrade of the hospital.

More day case surgery could be carried out in Stafford as theatres are revamped, and A&E is also set to be refurbished.

Patients will also be able to have hip and knee surgery in Stafford, while day case surgery will be carried out.

Some £50m will also be spent on the City General in Stoke.

But the move has provoked anger among Support Stafford Hospital campaigners.

Vice-chairman of the group Cheryl Porter said: "We are still fighting for our acute services and we feel this £43m could be better spent."

The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation is being dissolved later this year and taken over by the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

And UHNS today insisted the overhaul will have benefits for patients in Stafford - despite concerns that the site is losing vital services.

They said there could be hundreds of jobs being created over the two sites.

They have also revealed that paediatric outpatient and home visit services will be expanded to cut down on unnecessary admissions to hospital.

And a 'frail elderly service assessment unit' will be built to improve care for elderly people with acute medical problems.

Bosses will also link the unit up with care at home for the elderly.

The work follows health secretary Jeremy Hunt approving the Trust Special Administrators' recommendations for the future of the site.

John Simpson, UHNS director of corporate services, said: "The work signals the start of a new era in the history of the NHS in Staffordshire.