Stafford Hospital A&E to stay shut at night until October

The accident and emergency department at Stafford Hospital will not re-open at night until October, four months later than planned, it was announced today.

Plans were delayed following a meeting of commissioners.

The department has been closed from 10pm to 8am since December in a bid for bosses at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust to try and recruit more staff.

The board acknowledged last month progress was being made and it was working towards reopening the department at night in June.

But following a meeting last night of the Mid Staffordshire Commissioning Board, bosses agreed to work towards re-opening the department at night in October this year.

This would allow the recruitment of new staff in A&E to be fully integrated, they said.

At a meeting in March the trust was told six senior emergency medicine clinicians had been recruited, one more than the target that had been set.

Tracey Shewan, assistant director of corporate affairs for the Staffordshire Cluster of PCTs, said: "The Mid-Staffordshire Commissioning Board, which is chaired by the Cannock and Stafford and Surrounds Clinical Commissioning Groups, congratulated Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust on the significant progress that had been made.

"However, they also noted the clinical views about sustaining these improvements particularly in light of the number of newly appointed A&E staff.

"It was jointly agreed that we would work towards a re-opening in October 2012, subject to sustaining the significant improvements already made. This opening date will enable the improvements to become embedded and to fully integrate the newly appointed A&E staff into the department."