Health scrutiny councillors to review hospitals’ performance

Health scrutiny councillors from Shropshire Council and Telford and Wrekin Council will be questioning leading local NHS bosses on the performance of the area’s two acute hospitals – the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.

Representatives from the management of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), NHS ShropComm and Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System (ICS) will be appearing before the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Overview today.

The committee, made up of councillors and co-optees from both council areas, has expressed concerns that SaTH has been in special measures for a number of years.

The committee is keen to understand the challenges in the health and care system in Shropshire, the actions being taken to address SaTH’s performance, and the outcomes expected.

SaTH have identified that improvements have been made: however, in spite of these, the trust’s overall rating has remained unchanged.

Geoff Elner, Co-Chair of Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said:

“Through the previous work of this committee and of the councils’ groups including Shropshire Council’s prevention team, primary care, urgent and emergency care, and Discharge Task and Finish Group, the committee are aware that SaTH’s performance is impacted by the system, and conversely SaTH impacts the system when its services are under pressure. We are focused on doing our very best to ensure the best possible health and care services are delivered for all Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin communities.”

Ollie Vickers, Co-Chair of Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said:

“We recognise that our hospitals and the wider health system is under pressure and that there have been significant efforts to improve the situation, but the official rating of our hospitals remains ‘inadequate’. Our residents deserve quality care when they need it, so it’s my job to ask why this is the case and what will be done next to tackle the issue.”

The committee meets at Shirehall, Shrewsbury on Tuesday 24 October 2023 at 1pm.

The meeting will be livestreamed on YouTube.