Stafford hospital crisis: Concerns about children's A&E raised SEVEN WEEKS earlier

A timeline of events leading up to the controversial move has now been published.

It reveals that the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, which runs the Weston Road site, took nearly 50 days to close services despite fears around staffing.

It is likely to cause dismay among those who have called on bosses to take urgent action to reinstate the centre.

And it comes as the Express & Star's petition demanding the A&E reopen to children immediately smashed through the 5,000 names barrier.

• Sign our petition here

A report, to be discussed by health chiefs across Staffordshire on Monday, states that the West Midlands Quality Review Service (WMQRS) visited County Hospital on Wednesday, July 6 and told the the trust within 24 hours that there were 'immediate risks'.

However, it was not until Thursday, August 25 that the shock announcement to suspend services was made - 49 days later.

Within that period the trust also took three weeks to hold a meeting after the watchdog informed them that their response to the problems was not enough to mitigate the situation.

The report states: "On July 6 West Midlands Quality Review Service carried out a review of the Care of Critically Ill and Critically Injured Children at County Hospital. On July 7, WMQRS e-mailed the Trust a draft report identifying some immediate risks. These were defined as issues which the visiting team considered were potential serious incidents."

Trust chief executive Robert Courteney-Harris said: "Decisions to suspend any service are taken very seriously and are only implemented once all other options have been exhausted.

"Once the West Midlands Quality Review Service got in touch to say that the UHNM response did not mitigate the concerns that they had raised, the matter went back to the next available Clinical Quality Review Meeting for a full debate.

"At that meeting the Trust was asked to pull an action plan together and we involved our most senior A&E and Paediatric colleagues in this work. Our intention was to find a way to address the concerns raised, however, clinicians realised that they could not find a way of ensuring that the Children's Emergency Centre had the anaesthetic and resuscitation capability and cover that WMQRS deemed necessary to meet updated national standards.

"As soon as they realised that this was the case, the only responsible clinical decision was to temporarily suspend the service on safety grounds.

"We will be discussing this issue in more detail at the Health Staffordshire Select Committee on September 19, and our focus is on moving forward and returning safe children's services to County Hospital as soon as possible."