Stafford Hospital won foundation status despite fears

Former health secretary Andy Burnham rubber-stamped Stafford Hospital's controversial application for Foundation Status despite the fears of civil servants that it wasn't good enough, a public inquiry has heard.

Mr Burnham, who was then a junior minister within the Department of Health, approved the hospital's bid in 2007 as part of a national drive to get more hospitals awarded the special status, which gave them greater freedoms from the Government to make their own decisions.

His decision was made even though civil servants had assessed the hospital application as "being less than convincing".

Mike Gill, who became the hospital's deputy chief executive, worked at the Department of Health at the time and admitted to the Francis Inquiry yesterday that he considered the hospital's bid was "borderline".

The focus on applying for FT status and cutting £10 million from the hospital's budget has been blamed as one reason why standards at the trust became so poor.

Mr Gill told the inquiry civil servants were "surprised at the speed" the hospital came back into the system just seven months after it was told it was more than two years away from making a successful bid.

The inquiry was shown emails between Mr Gill and other civil servants who described how an informed decision needed to be taken "even if it is taken with one eye on the politics".

At a meeting in June 2007 Mr Gill and a committee of officials were told the hospital's bid "adds up to a less than convincing case that makes the application difficult to support".

Despite this they gave the bid the go-ahead to go in front of Mr Burnham. Mr Gill said: "From memory it was a borderline application that had risk attached to it but there was confidence in terms of how the organisation had moved in a relatively short space of time."

He accepted that given the fact the Healthcare Commission announced an investigation in 2008 into poor care at the trust "in hindsight it was the wrong decision".

A report to Mr Burnham said the hospital's business model was "marginal" but that there was a "can do attitude at the trust".

A few days later it was approved.