Children's A&E Services Suspended At Hospital In Stafford

Children's A&E services at County Hospital in Stafford have been suspended because "the service is not currently clinically safe".

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust brought the interim measure into place from 10am on Thursday, because of a lack of "professionally trained and experienced staff".

The changes do not affect the adult A&E, which remains open.

Liz Rix, chief nurse and acting deputy chief executive, said: "I fully appreciate the impact these temporary changes will have on families in Stafford and the surrounding area, and understand that people will be very concerned about this news.

"However, we cannot and will not continue to deliver services without the confidence that those services are safe."

Dr Ann Marie Morris, clinical director and emergency medicine consultant, said: "Whilst it is regrettable that some children may have to travel further for care, our first priority has to be providing a safe clinical service.

"People view the Children's Emergency Centre as a safety net, but this is only the case when the right number of professionally trained, experienced staff are in place at all times.

"This is not currently the case, and as we cannot resolve this in the short term, the only responsible course of action we can take is to suspend the service."

Sky News reporter Willem Marx said he had been told by the NHS that "doctors don't want to be associated" with the trust because of the Mid Staffordshire inquiries, which linked hundreds of deaths to poor care and lax safety standards.

The hospital changed its name from Stafford Hospital to County Hospital following the dissolution of Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, with the hospital now run by University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust.

The trust said a clinical model implemented as part of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Special Administrator recommendations has been deemed "unviable" following a number of safety concerns flagged up in a draft report by the West Midlands Quality Review Service.

The concerns relate to the "lack of sufficient numbers of staff with very specific levels of paediatric and anaesthetic training, including resuscitation and life-support competencies".

The trust said senior clinicians had spoken to staff about the issues and found the concerns raised by the report "cannot be addressed in the short term", leading to the temporary suspension.

Around 30 children are seen there every day, and local commissioners and Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy have asked the trust to come up with a plan and a timescale for what happens next "as a matter of urgency".

Last month, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine warned a gap between supply and demand for emergency doctors was leading to a "real crisis".

But despite shortages in specific A&Es, the Department for Health said at the time that there were 1,250 extra doctors working in emergency departments compared with 2010.