TWO health experts who were asked to investigate failures at Stafford Hospital will attend a public meeting next week.

MP David Kidney has arranged for Professor George Alberti and Dr David Colin-Thome to be at Trinity Church, Mount Street, Stafford, on June 24.

Both produced written reports containing a number of recommendations after an investigation by the Healthcare Commission exposed "appalling standards" which may have led to hundreds of deaths at the hospital.

Professor Alberti is still involved in helping the hospital improve its services.

Mr Kidney said the meeting was promised by the Health Minister Ben Bradshaw MP during a Parliamentary debate.

Mr Kidney said: "There remains intense interest and concern in this area about how some of the hospital's services were able to deteriorate so seriously without any part of the NHS picking up any warning signs.

"Some questions are best considered in the forum of an inquiry, but the reports of Professor Alberti and Dr Colin-Thome contain some of the answers as well as significant suggestions for the future.

"I have arranged for the two men to meet patients and patients' relatives as well as reporters. Those attending will be able to discuss the findings and recommendations of the two reports with the authors."

The public meeting will be held in the main church hall from 3.15pm until 4.45pm.

It will be preceded by a private meeting from 2pm until 3pm with the relatives of patients who died who wish to speak in a less open forum.

In March, NHS regulator the Healthcare Commission revealed how shocking conditions and chaotic systems could have caused hundreds of deaths at the hospital.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Stafford Hospital, has outlined its intention to recruit 40 extra nurses as well as overhaul patient care, staffing levels, facilities, equipment, procedures and systems.