RUGELEY MP Aidan Burley called management at Stafford Hospital “a lame duck administration” in response to news the town’s A&E department would not be reopening overnight today.
Mr Burley said: “I am hugely disappointed that after all the hard work to make the hospital safe that Stafford A&E is still not going to open 24/7.
“What is more concerning is that there appears to be little appetite or desire to open it in the future.”
He said the announcement by commissioners described a pilot reopening but that it was not clear what that meant or what the timescales were and it was clearly not the full 24/7 A&E his constituents needed.
“It is clear that what we have now in relation to Stafford Hospital is a lame duck administration,” he said. “If they cannot convince the commissioners to use the service, then it will slide ever further into decline.”
He said the trust’s management now needed to work with Monitor, after the announcement earlier this week the independent regulator would be stepping in to deal with the cash crisis at the trust.
He added: “I feel it is essential that the future of the management team currently running the Foundation Trust forms a central part of this review.”
