Stafford Hospital campaigners want more promises

A central theme in the final blueprint put forward by administrators is that Stafford and Cannock hospitals will deal only with routine or minor cases.

Complicated births, major operations and emergency critical care will all take place in Wolverhampton, Walsall or Stoke under the proposals which will go before Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt early next year.

A midwife-led maternity unit at Stafford will be able to deliver 1,000 babies a year – half the current number, with riskier births taking place at the neighbouring hospitals.

In-patient paediatrics will disappear and the A&E unit will be permanently reduced to 14-hour opening, with its overnight closure continuing from 10pm to 8am.

Seriously ill children will be admitted to larger hospitals. However, an assessment centre will be retained at Stafford under the revised plans announced yesterday, staffed with specially trained nurses and physicians.

The Weston Road site is also set to retain its level three critical care unit but will treat patients only as long as there is room. Major surgery and severe emergencies will be dealt with at the neighbouring hospitals. Pre-natal, post-natal and neonatal care will be maintained at Stafford, as well as most elective surgery. The hospital will also offer chemotherapy, renal dialysis, diagnostics and rehabilitation beds. There will also be a new frail and elderly assessment unit.

The overhaul of health provision in the Midlands will cost £220 million, which will see new building works at Wolverhampton, Walsall and Stoke to enable the sites to cope with an influx of extra patients. Cannock Hospital will benefit from a £20m revamp and take in-patients and carry out elective surgery. The amount of care will more than double under the plans with 350 nurses and doctors moving from New Cross.

Support Stafford Hospital campaigner Cheryl Porter said changes from the initial plans unveiled earlier this year – namely, provision of the midwife-led maternity unit and paediatric assessment centre at Stafford – were meaningless. Mrs Porter, who arranged two marches boasting tens of thousands of supporters calling for services at Stafford to be retained, said: "As far as we're concerned, nothing has changed – and we are appalled. We will more than likely end up losing the midwife-led unit in the end, as most people don't want to go to those units. And the decision to get rid of in-patient paediatrics is simply appalling – the health inequalities that will lead to couldn't be any bigger.

"Recently, we've come out as one of the top hospitals in the Midlands, and yet we're giving the other hospitals in the area millions of pounds to take us on.

"The other hospitals should be looking to us after all that Stafford Hospital has achieved. We're absolutely appalled but the fight goes on. We will not let this happen."

Staffordshire County Council leader Philip Atkins said the move to dissolve Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust still left serious concerns over the long-term stability of services. However, he added: "We have challenged the administrators' assumptions around areas such as maternity and I am pleased that they have listened to ourselves and the overwhelming call from residents to establish a midwife-led unit in Stafford."

Administrator Alan Bloom admitted he and his colleagues had bowed to public pressure to provide some maternity services at Stafford.

But Stafford Borough Council leader Mike Heenan said the plans were not acceptable. He said: "These recommendations are selling Stafford short.

"We shall not rest until we have exhausted every avenue in the fight to retain a full paediatric service, a consultant-led maternity unit and the necessary critical care."

Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy, who says he will be lobbying for in-patient paediatrics to be continued at Stafford, met Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt following yesterday's announcement.

The proposals require the agreement of the health regulator Monitor, which appointed the administrators in April, and the final approval of the Health Secretary by February 26, 2014.

Stafford was declared 'financially and clinically unsustainable' by Monitor earlier this year. Its problems date back to the period 2005 to 2009.