Stafford Hospital: The latest

Campaign group Support Stafford Hospital are calling on local medical teams to make decisions reflecting the needs of the local community. They stress that today's announcements are recommendations.

The final recommendations of experts brought in to examine services at Mid Staffs NHS Foundation Trust have delivered their final report on its future. They include some changes to their initial draft.

A maternity unit will be set up at Stafford, while there will be an upgraded child assessment unit staffed by specially trained clinicians.

Seriously ill youngsters will still go to specialist centres.

Cannock Chase Hospital will be used by recovering patients transferred from specialist hospitals.

Money will be spent on upgrading services at separate hospitals in Stoke, Wolverhampton and Walsall.

Stafford would be run by the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, and Cannock taken on by the Royal Wolverhampton.

Health watchdog Monitor and the Health Secretary now need to approve the plans and any changes would happen over three years.

Special Administrators at Mid Staffs NHS Foundation Trust have today announced £130 million of capital expenditure, £40 million of which will be spent directly on upgrading Stafford and Cannock Chase hospitals.

Special Administrators at Mid Staffs NHS Foundation Trust are giving their final report into its future today.

They have made some changes to their draft proposals after getting feedback from people during the consultation period. They recommend:

1. A midwife-led unit should be established. They say this will handle low-risk pregnancies - 50% of all births.

2. A paediatric assessment unit should be run alongside the A and E, staffed by trained paediatric nurses and doctors.

They say their plans will allow critical patients to remain at Stafford as long as their conditions are "uncomplicated". This will be assessed on a case by case basis.

Special Administrators at Mid Staffs NHS Foundation Trust say they still believe it should be dissolved.

They recommend that Stafford Hospital should be run by the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, or Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Primary Care Trust and Cannock Chase should be run by Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.

Nurse Ann King was struck off after diabetic patient Gillian Astbury died at Stafford Hospital after slipping into a fatal diabetic coma in 2007.

Protestors outside Stafford Hospital as they wait for Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Special Administrators to make public draft recommendations about its future.

Sir David Nicholson gives evidence to a House of Commons Health Select Committee on the report into serious failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.

The parents of John Moore-Robinson have been granted a second inquest into the death of their son. John died at home from a ruptured spleen after attending Stafford Hospital in 2006.

Julie Bailey, founder of 'Cure the NHS,' arrives with family members at Stafford Civic Centre for a meeting with Robert Francis QC following the publication of the report into Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.

Thousands of campaigners gather in the centre of Stafford to protest at plans to move some acute services away from their local hospital.

In April 50,000 people march in Stafford against plans to downgrade the town's hospital.

Plans for the future of crisis-hit Stafford Hospital will be outlined later today.

Special administrators appointed by the government to look into the running of Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust will publish their final recommendations.

In April an interim report recommended the trust which runs Stafford Hospital and Cannock Hospital should be dissolved.

Special administrators working at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust will publish their draft report later today.

It is due to recommend how health services should be provided by the Trust in the future.

There is a possibility that the A&E department of the Trust could be told to close. Consultation will begin in August.