Name change fears over Stafford's County Hospital A&E

Andy Donald, accountable officer for three of Staffordshire's Clinical Commissioning Groups, mooted the idea at a health and scrutiny panel meeting, according to Councillor Louise Nixon.

The five-year Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) for Staffordshire published in December, revealed that one of the county's three A&Es would be downgraded to urgent care centre.

And Councillor Nixon's fears Mr Donald's comments could mean the writing is already on the wall for the Weston Road site.

Following the meeting at Stafford Borough Council last week, she said: "Andy Donald made a comment at the meeting that the 'A&E should be re-named to reflect the needs of the community'.

"It may well be that more of our elderly residents use A&E than the rest of our population but that shouldn't mean that our A&E should be downgraded to only accommodate their needs.

"We need an A&E suitable for a wide range of age-groups and emergencies. To re-name A&E suggests that it is about to change. To change it would cause fatalities. Young or old, our A&E has a vital role to play in keeping us all well in a life-threatening emergency."

Councillor Nixon added: "Please, keep the name A&E, make it run 24/7 – as promised – and make it open for all. Our community also needs to have a 24/7 paediatric service as well."

Following the meeting, Mr Donald said no decisions had been made about the hospital's A&E.

He said: "We are at the start of a process to look at the provision of urgent care services generally across the whole of Staffordshire.

"No decisions have been made as we are still at the stage of working with clinicians, patients and the public to explore what services are needed.

"This is not about what a building in Stafford or anywhere else is called.

"This is about making sure we have a range of services that are the right services to best meet the needs of the local population – and that is the conversation we will continue to have."

County Hospital's A&E has been closed overnight since December 2011, and is currently open between 8am and 10pm.

Campaigners have called for a round-the-clock service to be restored, especially in light of missed A&E performance targets at Royal Stoke University Hospital.

The calls grew louder when Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt vowed to consider it, providing the move could be done safely, before the last General Election. But a formal decision has never materialised.