An independent report has found that the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is clinically and financially unsustainable.
There's a warning tonight about the future of Stafford Hospital. Experts brought in by the health regulator monitor says it can't carry on running up its current debts. However, they say if staff numbers are cut to save money, it will become "clinically unsafe".
Keith Wilkinson reports.
An independent report has found that the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is clinically and financially unsustainable.
Statement from Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust:
'Mid Staffs is not financially sustainable in its current form because, despite all the efforts not only of the Trust but of the local health service, we do not have a plan which brings us to break even by 2015.
Similar financial challenges are being faced across the country by smaller general hospitals.'
'Our services are not clinically sustainable in their current form.
This is because medicine has and will continue to become more specialised and smaller hospitals cannot attract or resource the specialist teams and infrastructure required to maintain such services.'
An independent report has found that the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is clinically and financially unsustainable.
While it says Stafford and Cannock hospitals are providing safe care at the moment, they will not be able to continue providing the same service in the future and break even financially.