Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust healthcare comes to an end

The new names for the hospitals do not include the words "Stafford" or "Staffordshire"

Services at the scandal-hit Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust have been transferred to other health trusts.

Since midnight, Stafford Hospital and City General in Stoke-on-Trent have been in the charge of University Hospitals of North Midlands.

Paediatric, critical care and maternity units at Stafford will be downgraded as they move to Wolverhampton and Stoke.

Stafford was heavily criticised for failings of care that may have contributed to unnecessary deaths.

A dissolution order was made in October, and facilities are due to begin moving in January, beginning with consultant-led maternity care, with acute surgery and all paediatric units due to move in February and March.

Hospital moves

• Stafford Hospital and City General in Stoke are now run by University Hospitals of North Midlands

• Stafford Hospital has been renamed County Hospital

• City General has been renamed Royal Stoke University Hospital

• Cannock Hospital, which was also run by the Mid Staffordshire Trust, is now part of the Royal Wolverhampton Trust

Although with diminished facilities, both hospitals will remain open and have been renamed.

Stafford Hospital is now called County Hospital, and City General has become Royal Stoke University Hospital.

The names were changed in an attempt to avoid the negative connotations of the word Stafford.

The new managing director of the County Hospital, Chris Bown, said it was time to look forward.

'Very little difference"

This handover to the University Hospitals of North Midlands is largely ceremonial as services begin moving in the new year.

Mr Bown said: "In reality, people will notice very little difference. Staff at the site will be doing exactly the same on the 31 [of October] as on the 1 [of November].

"Any changes will be noticed after Christmas but remember, nine out of 10 patients will continue to be treated on the County Hospital site."

The trust will remain as a legal "shell" entity for a further three years to allow for any criminal cases to be dealt with, and will be dissolved on 1 November 2017.

"There needs to be something concrete to be held responsible", a spokesman for the health watchdog Monitor said.

University Hospitals of North Midlands now runs the former Stafford Hospital and City General Hospital