Mid Staffordshire hospital investigation cost £19.5m

The University Hospitals of North Midlands trust now runs Stafford Hospital, renamed County Hospital, and City General, renamed as Royal Stoke University Hospital

Sending special administrators into a troubled health trust cost almost £19.5m, a health watchdog has revealed.

Monitor, the government regulator, said its investigation into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust "took longer and cost more than originally planned".

The original budget of £15.25m was exceeded after the timescale of the inquiry was extended twice.

A new trust took over running hospitals in the area in November last year.

Mid Staffordshire costs

• Finding a solution: £17.35m

• Trust Special Administrators: £2.15m

• The work took 18 months

Source: Monitor

The trust had to pay £3.55m to accountants Ernst and Young during the course of special administration because it "did not have the specialist staff required to carry out the work", Monitor said.

Dr David Bennett, its chief executive, said: "If nothing had been done the trust would have been £100m in debt by 2018.

"Our priority was securing safe and sustainable services for the people of Staffordshire, and while special administration took longer than expected it nevertheless led to substantial investment in local health services."

There is a vocal local campaign group in support of Stafford Hospital

Mid-Staffordshire health trust failings - timeline

• November 2010: Inquiry into avoidable deaths at Stafford Hospital, chaired by Robert Francis QC, begins

• April 2011: Cynthia Bower, former Chief Executive of NHS West Midlands, apologised to the relatives of those who had died at Stafford Hospital saying they had been let down

• December 2011: Public inquiry ends after 139 days and at a cost of over £10m.

• February 2013: In his final report, Robert Francis QC makes 290 recommendations for changing the NHS

• April 2013: Up to 30,000 people march in opposition to plans to downgrade Stafford Hospital's services

• June 2013: Police investigate about 300 deaths at Stafford Hospital, after evidence showed they could have been caused by neglect

• February 2014: Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust to be broken up and key services moved to neighbouring hospitals

• November 2014: New trust takes over hospitals

The regulator said it had brought forward the publication of the figures in response to a "pending parliamentary question".

A detailed breakdown of the costs, alongside a report setting out some of the lessons learned, would be published "in due course", Monitor said.

The University Hospitals of North Midlands trust now runs Stafford Hospital, renamed County Hospital, and City General, renamed as Royal Stoke University Hospital.