Future Fit: Public consultation set to launch at end of month

People across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales are to be asked for their views on proposals to transform local hospital services when the NHS Future Fit public consultation is launched later this month.

The board of NHS Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has today approved the recommendation from the Future Fit Programme Board that the public consultation will begin on 30 May 2018 and run for 14 weeks until 4 September 2018. This follows approval from NHS Shropshire CCG board on Wednesday.

This announcement follows formal approval from NHS England to launch the consultation and the earlier announcement from the Department of Health & Social Care that the Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Sustainability & Transformation Partnership (STP) will receive £300m funding for the Future Fit programme to assist with the future reconfiguration of our local hospital services.

The formal public consultation will ask for people’s views on two options:

Option 1:
The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital becomes an Emergency Care site and the Princess Royal Hospital becomes a Planned Care site (This is the CCGs' preferred option).

Option 2:
The Princess Royal Hospital becomes an Emergency care site and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital becomes a Planned Care site.

Under either option, both hospitals would have an Urgent Care Centre that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Mr David Evans, Chief Officer, NHS Telford & Wrekin CCG, said: “I am delighted that we will soon be able to share our proposed plans for the future of our two hospitals and hear the views of communities across Telford & Wrekin, Shropshire and mid Wales. Thank you to all our patients, doctors, nurses, other healthcare staff and partners who have worked so hard to get us to this point.”

Dr Simon Freeman, Accountable Officer, NHS Shropshire CCG, added: “This is fantastic news for our local communities and a major step forward in making sure we can secure two vibrant hospitals and improve the care received by people across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales now and in the future. When the consultation launches, we would urge everyone to come to our events, visit our website and have their say by filling out our survey.”

Throughout the 14-week consultation, there will be eight public exhibition events where people can drop in and meet doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff, ask questions and find out more.

In addition, representatives from the CCGs will be attending a range of meetings and events providing regular updates and answering questions. And there will be a range of pop-up style roadshows at community and public venues across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales.

All meetings and events will be publicised on the website www.nhsfuturefit.org