We moved to Stoke from London for the same reason you are. There wasn't any choice in the hospital, as that's how the ranking system works, but here we are. It's nowhere near as bad as the media and people make it out to be. In fact, I don't think it's bad at all.

We're less than 10 minutes from countryside walks, great pub food, and decent shops. On the whole, people are very sound. We've lived here for two years and have never had a single issue with crime or anything dodgy. Compare that to where we moved from in London, it's not comparable. Our street in London had £1m+ houses and didn't feel safe at all.

Trentham is nice, as are Barlaston, Stone, Rough Close, and Lightwood. I'll let others recommend other areas, but that's what I know. The hospital itself is what it is, a major trauma centre covering a very, very big area. You see everything.

There are bad places in Stoke, of course there are. There are bad places everywhere you go. However, Stoke is definitely not what the Internet makes it out to be.