A DETAILED programme of improvements at a hospital slammed by the Government for a catalogue of failings was due to be launched today.

Patient care, staffing levels, facilities, equipment, procedures and systems at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Stafford Hospital, are all due to be overhauled under the improvement scheme.

The Transformation Programme has been produced in response to the recommendations of the Healthcare Commission and the subsequent reports by Professor Sir George Alberti and Dr David Colin-Thome.

A spokesman for the trust said: "The programme, which sets out the future goals of the trust, will bring about the changes needed to ensure that all patients receive the quality of care they are entitled to."