Thousands of patients could be forced to switch hospitals for treatment after the health regulator confirmed that the troubled Mid Staffs foundation trust was bankrupt and announced that independent administrators would take over.

The health regulator Monitor said it had appointed two special administrators – the clinician Hugo Mascie-Taylor and Alan Bloom of Ernst and Young – to "safeguard the future of health services" at the trust, before producing a plan to "reorganise" services in 45 days.

Last year South London Healthcare NHS trust became the first to be put into administration after it began losing about £1.3m a week. In January Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, announced that each of its three hospitals would be taken over by a neighbouring institution, sparking local protests when it emerged that Lewisham hospital – not part of the failing trust – would have its A&E and maternity services downgraded.

Mid Staffordshire is the first foundation trust – a supposed marker of financial excellence in the NHS – to face the same fate. In reality the trust has been under the microscope ever since evidence of poor care emerged five years ago. An inquiry by Robert Francis QC into hundreds of "excess" deaths at the hospital between 2005 and 2009 concluded in February this year that there had been failure at every level of the health service.

As head of the contingency planning team, sent in by the regulator to assess the trust's plight last year, Mascie-Taylor is well-versed in what lies at the heart of its troubles. While current patient services were given a clean bill of health by the Care Quality Commission, Mascie-Taylor's team said in January that Mid Staffs was "not clinically or financially sustainable in the longer term in its current form".

The contingency planning team's report noted that the Department of Health provided £20m to prop up the trust's finances last year, with a similar amount needed again this year. It warned in March that the current range of services provided by Mid Staffs was not "clinically sustainable because the number of patients and the level of staffing are insufficient to meet required standards of emergency surgery and critical care in the long term".

The trust was too small in its current form, with a patient population "significantly below guidelines" for an acute general hospital providing a full range of elective and emergency services. It was also pointed out that nearly a fifth of consultant posts at Mid Staffordshire were not filled by "substantive employees" of the trust.

The team's proposed options would shrink the trust's hospitals at Stafford and Cannock, with roughly 20% of the trust's 200,000 patients – those needing specialised and serious care – potentially facing trips to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, the Royal Wolverhampton hospitals and Walsall Healthcare NHS trust.

Sources at Monitor stressed that the two administrators would not be bound by previous reports and would be "independent" from the regulator. David Bennett, chief executive of Monitor, said: "We have taken this decision to make sure that patients in the Mid Staffordshire area have the services they need in the future. It is now the role of the trust special administrators to work with the local community to decide the best way of delivering these services. There will be a full public consultation on any proposals for change."

Mike Farrar, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health service management, said there was "no denying that changes to services can be controversial".

He added: "We need to do more to support troubled trusts at the earliest possible stage to maintain high standards of care, rather than getting to the point where trusts find themselves facing administration. This requires better integration of services and a focus on people's care needs, rather than the location of buildings."

The health minister Lord Howe said: "Despite improvements, Mid Staffordshire is still facing serious financial challenges. This puts its work on improving services for patients at risk. It is essential that local services will last and provide high-quality care for patients now and in the future.

"That is why Monitor has appointed trust special administrators [who] will be responsible for making sure patients get high-quality care during this time. They will also look at how the services should be provided in the future. They will now work with clinicians, staff, commissioners, patients and the public, and other stakeholders to prepare recommendations for a sustainable and a high-quality NHS for local people."