John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
The process of putting the scandal-hit Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust into administration has begun, the health regulator Monitor says.
Neglect and abuse at Stafford Hospital led to hundreds of unnecessary deaths between 2005 and 2008.
The trust has also faced considerable financial problems and was told it needed to save £53m over the next five years to stave off insolvency.
Other bodies need to be consulted before the process officially starts.
It would be the first time an NHS Foundation Trust has been put into administration.
The trust looks after Stafford and Cannock Chase Hospitals.
A report by Monitor earlier this year highlighted financial problems at the trust - in order to break even there would need to be savings of 7% of its yearly budget.
It said the trust was neither clinically nor financially sustainable in its current form in the long term.
Care at the hospital was so poor that patients were left in soiled sheets while others were so dehydrated they drank from flower vases.
A Freedom of Information request by the BBC showed that falling public confidence in Stafford Hospital was costing the trust nearly £4m a year.
It showed there had been a 67% drop in the number of patients in the past five years as they were choosing to "have their treatment elsewhere".
David Bennett, the chief executive of Monitor, said: "We are now consulting on whether to appoint Trust Special Administrators with the expertise to reorganise services in a way which is clinically robust and sustainable.
"Their priority will be to make sure that patients can continue to access the services that they need and they will work with the local community to do this.
"Taking into account the consultation process, it would be several weeks before Trust Special Administrators were in place."
The process of administration would need to include a plan for reorganising health services in the area and would need to be approved by the Secretary of State.
Neglect and abuse at Stafford Hospital led to hundreds of unnecessary deaths between 2005 and 2008.
The trust has also faced considerable financial problems and was told it needed to save £53m over the next five years to stave off insolvency.
Other bodies need to be consulted before the process officially starts.
It would be the first time an NHS Foundation Trust has been put into administration.
The trust looks after Stafford and Cannock Chase Hospitals.
A report by Monitor earlier this year highlighted financial problems at the trust - in order to break even there would need to be savings of 7% of its yearly budget.
It said the trust was neither clinically nor financially sustainable in its current form in the long term.
Care at the hospital was so poor that patients were left in soiled sheets while others were so dehydrated they drank from flower vases.
A Freedom of Information request by the BBC showed that falling public confidence in Stafford Hospital was costing the trust nearly £4m a year.
It showed there had been a 67% drop in the number of patients in the past five years as they were choosing to "have their treatment elsewhere".
David Bennett, the chief executive of Monitor, said: "We are now consulting on whether to appoint Trust Special Administrators with the expertise to reorganise services in a way which is clinically robust and sustainable.
"Their priority will be to make sure that patients can continue to access the services that they need and they will work with the local community to do this.
"Taking into account the consultation process, it would be several weeks before Trust Special Administrators were in place."
The process of administration would need to include a plan for reorganising health services in the area and would need to be approved by the Secretary of State.