Super A&E idea would make no change in Council position

The council says there must be a 24 hour full accident and emergency service at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital.

This follows the area’s health services saying a new super hospital with a full accident and emergency department could be built in the next five years to serve both Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin

This new model for hospital services is one that is being investigated by the area’s Clinical Commissioning Groups as part of its review of hospital services in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin.

Last autumn, the Council’s three main political groups passed a motion calling for full 24 hour A&E services to be maintained at the PRH as part of the review into the future of hospital services in the area.

Cllr Kuldip Sahota, leader of the Council, said: “We await to see more information from the CCGs on their new idea from clinicians, but this Council and the people of the borough, who also have a key role to play in any decision on the future of hospital services, are absolutely clear.

“Our position on accident and emergency services at the PRH has not changed one jot. A full 24 hour A&E service must be retained at the PRH.

“Without this the hospital would effectively be downgraded and all the other acute specialties that rely on A&E services would no longer be viable.

“I find it hard to believe that in the current climate of savage cuts in public spending that the NHS thinks it can find a way to fund such a new hospital particularly when there is an excellent site with plenty of potential to expand at the PRH

“Telford & Wrekin is also the region’s biggest centre of population, a national growth hotspot and there are many rapidly growing areas such as Bridgnorth, Albrighton, Market Drayton and Shifnal that are all in the PRH’s catchment. Couple this with the more serious health problems in Telford and Wrekin and it seems the case for PRH is even stronger.”