£1K-a-day expenses for Stafford Hospital administrators

The Ernst & Young team spent £687,928 on expenses, including £250,000 on hotels, £250,000 on train tickets, £63,000 on taxis, £59,000 on food and drink and £54,000 on cars.

Health regulator Monitor, who appointed the administrators to overhaul the troubled Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, has so far refused to reveal the total cost of the process – but it is understood to be in excess of £10 million.

The figures were revealed after a Freedom of Information Act request from the Express & Star.

Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy says he will table a parliamentary question asking for the total cost to be made public.

Mr Lefroy said: "You expect a level of expense but the real issue is finding out what the total cost was. I think there is an over-reliance on the big accounting firms who charge sky-high rates. I am in favour of the government contracting small firms or setting up an arm's-length body to carry out these sort of re-structures at a lower cost."

Cheryl Porter from Support Stafford Hospital said: "We knew they would cost a lot of money – and for what? We have lost our major services and people feel we have been left with nothing."

Monitor says its agreement with Ernst & Young forbade first class rail travel and more than 100 people worked on the project.

The administration process, led by Alan Bloom, Alan Hudson, and Dr Hugo Mascie-Taylor, ended in November and has seen a downgrade of Stafford's A&E, maternity, and children's departments. The hospital is now run by the new University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust after a merger with the University Hospital of North Staffordshire Trust.

Stafford Hospital has been renamed County Hospital.

A Monitor spokeman said: "The Trust Special Administrators (TSA) secured essential services for the people of Stafford and their activities generated large-scale investment in local health services. The TSA project took longer than anticipated and cost more as a result."