Scandal-hit Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is to become the first foundation trust in the country to be put into administration, regulators have announced.

Health regulator Monitor said that it has appointed two trust special administrators to "safeguard the future of health services" currently provided at the trust.

A spokeswoman said that clinician Dr Hugo Mascie-Taylor along with Alan Bloom of Ernst and Young will take over the running of the trust tomorrow.

Last year, South London Healthcare NHS Trust became the first ever NHS trust to be put under the care of a special administrator after it started losing around £1.3 million a week.

But Mid Staffordshire is the first foundation trust - a supposed marker of excellence in the health service - to face the same fate.

Monitor said that the current executive team will report to the special administrators.

A spokeswoman said that the administrators would work with commissioners and other local healthcare organisations to produce a plan for the "reorganisation" and "sustainable delivery" of health services.

In its statement, the regulator added: "Monitor took the decision to make the appointment after experts in a contingency planning team concluded that the trust was neither clinically nor financially sustainable in its current form.

"The appointment has been made following consultation with the Health Secretary and an order authorising the appointment was laid before Parliament today."