Confirmed: Telford’s A&E service to be replaced by ‘Urgent Treatment Centre'
Telford is set to see its A&E service downgraded and replaced by an ‘Urgent Treatment Centre’ as part of Hospital Transformation Plans in the county, it has been confimed.
In December, an Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) re-affirmed that the Hospitals Transformation Programme (HTP) is the best way forward to improve acute hospital services for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and mid-Wales. This included plans for the 24/7 enhanced urgent care service at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH).
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust yesterday revealed it had received confirmation from NHS England that it supports the recommendation of the IRP and that the name of the 24/7 enhanced urgent care service to be provided at PRH will be an Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) rather than A&E Local.
The HTP Full Business Case is at the final stage of the national approval process. Under these plans, approximately two-thirds of patients who currently attend the Emergency Department at PRH fall into this category and will continue to access the care they need at the UTC at PRH.
Most people who currently attend the Trust’s Emergency Departments at PRH, and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, need urgent care for non-life-or-limb-threatening conditions and do not need comprehensive emergency care with the backup of specialist teams or hospital admission.
Telford & Wrekin Council has been lobbying the government and NHS England to reconsider the plans since they were first announced, including delivering a petition of more than 20,000 signatures to Downing Street last year.
Cllr Shaun Davies, Leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, said: “Whilst I welcome the confirmation that all parties will stop using the disingenuous term ‘A&E Local’, let’s make this very clear: today’s announcement from the NHS confirms our fears.
“Telford won’t have an A&E. We will be the largest town in England without a A&E. We won’t have consultant led women and children services.”
