New health chief vows to restore Stafford Hospital A&E

The new man at the helm of the trust that runs the hospitals in Cannock and Stafford today said his role was "one of the most important jobs in the NHS" as he vowed to restore round-the-clock A&E "as soon as possible".

Professor John Caldwell, the new chairman of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, said he wanted to repair Stafford's "broken" reputation for its 300 staff and 3,000-strong community it serves.

"We have got to make this work – it got a bit broken around here and we are in the process of putting it back together," he said.

"It got broken under one set of circumstances and we are putting it back together in another, certainly when you look at the financial constraints.

"But I've never been scared of a challenge. Any job I have done, I have always been able to get things done, to make things happen. This is a real job – in some ways it's one of the most important jobs in the NHS. We have got to turn the place around."

Top of the grandfather-of-two's "to do" list is to ensure Stafford's accident and emergency department can safely reopen overnight.

"What people have to realise is that A&E hours were restricted very deliberately because we were unable to offer the guarantee of safe patient care we should be able to," said Professor Caldwell, whose wife Jill is an Anglican priest.

"That service will be restored as soon as it is safe to do so – not before." He said improving the "consistency" of care was also a priority. Professor Caldwell, 64, who helped to instigate changes in the aftermath of the Alder Hey organ scandal as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Liverpool, started his new job last month.