Council leader raises concerns with NHS boss and calls for hospitals pause
The leader of Telford & Wrekin Council has urged the boss of the NHS group overseeing plans to move key services from Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital to call an immediate “break” on the process.
Shaun Davies has also told the chief officer of Telford and Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Groups David Evans of his grave concerns about last week’s non-financial appraisal of options for hospital services at the PRH and Royal Shrewsbury.
Cllr Davies is urging an enforced pause to the NHS Future Fit programme overseeing reorganising hospital services to allow more detailed discussion and consideration of the decision making process.
“I had a good meeting with David Evans last night and highlighted our specific and serious concerns about the non-financial and financial appraisal process, which he has confirmed has paved the way for NHS bosses plans to recommend moving the £28m Women & Children’s Unit, just two years after it opened, and A&E services from the PRH.
“On every level, this makes no sense.
“We need a clear pause because we feel the NHS needs more time to look again at how it has presented information and on which key decisions, that will have a very negative affect on hundreds of thousands people in this borough and in major parts of Shropshire, appear to have been made.
“I also repeated the strong clinical and financial case to keep the Women & Children’s Unit at PRH as a minimum, which has not altered since the centre was built and opened.
“This is not, and has never been, a Telford v Shrewsbury issue. We have from the beginning and still now support the need for an A&E in each hospital and again urge the NHS – we need a long pause to allow sufficient time for detailed discussion about the whole Future Fit process.”
