Scandal-hit Stafford Hospital is now making progress

Stafford Hospital is making progress despite the delay in reopening its accident and emergency department at night, trust chiefs have said.

The department, which has been closed from 10pm to 8am since December over safety concerns, was expected to reopen in June, but now a revised date of October has been set to allow new staff in A&E to be fully integrated.

Hospital chiefs and healthcare commissioners yesterday gathered at Staffordshire University's Stafford campus to explain their decision.

Dr Ken Deacon, medical director of the Staffordshire Cluster of Primary Care Trusts, said: "Nothing has gone wrong. The hospital trust has made tremendous progress.

"We think the new team need more time to gel together. We do not want to put at risk the progress that has been made.

"The popular thing to do would be to re-open it at night straight away. The consultants are not prepared to do that early."

He said if things continued to go to plan, Stafford Hospital's A&E department would reopen at night towards the beginning of October. "If the progress is made that continues to be made now it will reopen."

"There is no such thing as a cast-iron guarantee but if teams continue to work together there is no reason why we would not do that. We have five senior doctors and fully staffed middle doctors now."

Manjit Obhrai, medical director at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, added: "Twenty-five per cent of our staff are new. The key message is the service is very safe. In October we will have nine middle grade doctors."

Dr Johnny McMahon, chair of the Cannock Chase clinical commissioning group, said that the planned introduction of an "urgent and emergency care model" from October did not mean a downgrading of the hospital's A&E department.

Jeremy Lefroy, MP for Stafford, said: "We are slightly disappointed that it could not be opened sooner but we understand the patients' safety comes first."

But Cannock Chase MP Aidan Burley said he was "deeply disappointed".