The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust was a NHS foundation trust which managed two hospitals in Staffordshire, England:
The trust was awarded NHS foundation trust status on 1 February 2008. Previously it was named Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust, which was created in 1993.
The trust served about 320,000 people from Stafford, Cannock, Rugeley and the surrounding rural areas. About 3,000 employees worked in the two hospitals.
The trust provided services which were formerly commissioned by South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust, which was created in 2006 by a merger of four PCTs: Burntwood, Lichfield & Tamworth, Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire and South Western Staffordshire. The trust was in the area covered by the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority.
In 2012, following a £19.9 million annual deficit, the regulator, Monitor, sent in a team to resolve the trust's poor financial situation. This could involve a solvent restructuring of the trust, or to place the trust in special administration. In February 2013 it was confirmed that the process of putting the trust into administration had begun.
In October 2014 it was announced that the Trust would be dissolved with Stafford Hospital to be renamed County Hospital and taken over by the newly constituted University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust. Cannock Chase Hospital would be taken over by Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust.
The trust was at the centre of the major Stafford Hospital scandal in which many press reports claimed that because of the substandard care between 400 and 1200 more patients died between 2005 and 2008 than would be expected for the type of hospital, though in fact such ‘excess’ death statistics did not appear in the final Healthcare Commission report. The 2010 independent investigation report recommended that the regulator, Monitor, de-authorise the Foundation Trust status. In June 2010, the new government announced that a full public inquiry was expected to report in March 2011. The final report was published on 6 February 2013, making 290 recommendations.