The row over a possible downgrading of Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital by axing some of its acute services looks set to be debated by MPs in the House of Commons, it was revealed today.
The move comes as opposition grew to a proposal before health chiefs to move the most serious Accident & Emergency and acute cases, vascular surgery and in-patient paediatrics to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
A report to board members of NHS Telford & Wrekin, Shropshire County PCT and the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust recommends they note that transferring the services to Shrewsbury by 2012/13 is the best option in the medium term.
An alternative option of transferring the services to Telford from the Royal Shrewsbury scored lower on non-financial grounds, would cost almost three times as much and take longer to build, the report says.
Members of the boards will meet over the following fortnight to decide on the options. A recommendation that all acute services be concentrated on one site from 2020 onwards, be it either the PRH, the RSH or a new hospital which would have to be built, is expected to go out for public consultation in 2011.
Wrekin Conservative MP Mark Pritchard has tabled a series of Parliamentary questions abo ut the future of the PRH to Health Secretary Andy Burnham.
He has also written to Mr Burnham asking for an urgent meeting to discuss “the risk to the lives of my constituents”.
Mr Pritchard said: “I will be taking my fight for local hospital services all the way to the Secretary of State’s front door. Local people have paid record levels of taxes yet are now being told services need to be cut because the- re is no more money for doctors.
“This is just not good enough. Accident & emergency services and overnight paediatric services are just not negotiable.”
PRH league of friends chairman Alan Millward said: “The public are sick and tired of health chiefs telling them one thing and then doing another.”
He added: “We have more than 130 members in the league of friends and most of them said ‘Oh no! Not again’ when they saw the plans revealed in the Shropshire Star.”
Have YOUR vote on Shropshire health care
See Also:
14 Comments
Your poll should be withdrawn right now.
I do not agree with either option – people might pick the ‘least worst’ option and the results will be misleading.
Full range of services, both hospitals, no messing about.
Report abuse
What has the MP for Telford, David Wright, got to say about this? Probably not a lot – as usual.
I for one won’t be voting in your online poll because the only options are those presented by the NHS Trust – both hospitals should retain decent facilities.
IF a cost-saving exercise is neccessary perhaps the only MP in Shropshire who is a member of the government could explain why?
Report abuse
Remember Brown on his feet sneering at the Tories about Tory “cuts” and Labour “investment”.
How quickly all the lies, deviousness, chicanery and spin has been found out and the Labour gang have to face reality over the problems that they have caused. How can they face us after these words of “Clown” and this horrendous “U” turn.
Locally, the PRH is just one example of “Labour cut’s”. Now look 40 miles down the road to Worcester (another PFI rented hospital thought up by Labour)- their “Labour cut’s” are predicted to be a sight worse and their CEOs comments in the local Worcester paper have set off an avalanche in the local community. Then today, we hear of Ed Balls (yes, he with the Monty Python appearance)Labour Education Secretary saying that he will “cut” the Education budget by £2 Billion by reducing the number of Headmasters and putting a number of schools under one single Head- amongst other things. Then we have the revelation that Labour were considering increasing Income Tax by 3p in the pound at the last budget. What would they have for us in the next.
If we think that we have seen the lying deceitful side of New Labour with this little lot, don’t you believe it. If they are doing this before the election, god help us when their cut’s after the election will hit us. AND THEY SAID THAT THEY WERE NOT GOING TO CUT EDUCATION OR THE NHS. Liars to a man and woman, everyone of them.
Report abuse
Well said Kath and Rob, we should be sticking together and demanding both hospitals retain decent facilities.
Report abuse
Stuart is, as always, keen to jump on the usual simplistic ‘blame everything on the government’ bandwagon.
My understanding is that this is a decision made by the NHS trust. They are a non-political body, but I would hazard a guess that given the pro-Shrewsbury bias evident in this latest decision, it would be more likely that any political pressure involved would have come from right of centre.
Sadly, the greed of rich capitalists has brought this country to its current difficulties. I cannot fathom why anyone would want to vote for the party that championed financial services as our great saviour, and gave those very rich folk massive tax cuts some 20 years ago.
Rather than cut public services to fund their irresponsibility, we should be raising taxes to a punitive level for the wealthiest and keeping the nationalised banks’ profits for years to come to wrestle our money back from these parasites.
Report abuse
I won’t be using your online poll and I urge others not to either. As Kath @1 said – “people might pick the ‘least worst’ option and the results will be misleading”
Where are the 3rd and 4th options for 2012/13 – to leave things as they are, or to improve the services of both hospitals.
I think you should re-think your poll otherwise you could be seen to be supporting the PCT’s options in it’s so called public consultation exercise.
Report abuse
I agree re think your poll. I don’t want services lost at either of the sites.
Report abuse
Yes Peter, and as per usual we get the red flag socialist – bordering on Marxist approach to these sort of issues from yourself. If the Government is not to blame for this, perhaps you could make your reasons for it a bit more convincing because it is rather juvenile.
FACT, Telford is not the only hospital having to make economies, many others are with equally devastating consequences for their local communities. All those affected so far are well aware that any diminution of their budgets under the “cuts” to come will mean a diminution of the services they provide. Trusts are responding to this and drawing up contingency plan options for what seems inevitable.
Do you honestly think that the Trust would run the risk of alienating most of the population of Telford if the Government under Clown were going to keep their budgets going together with the resultant rises in inflation. This has been forced on them by having had the “nod” from Clown that a serious belt tightening is on the way, rather “coincidental” don’t you think that at this almost split second in time, a number of Hospitals the length and breadth of the country are looking at “centralising” services.
This would appear therefore, to be Government inspired, just the same as they propose “centralising” a number of schools under one Head.
Your irrelevant rant over “rich capitalists” is of course over shadowed by the fact that Clown has just “printed” £175 BILLION of unearned money to keep him looking good until the election and had he “saved for a rainy day” when he was Chancellor instead of making the country bankrupt by borrowing (and now having to pay it back by making cuts), neither hospitals or schools would find themselves in this position.
This Labourite gang are to blame and Clown in particular. Your “right of centre”, pro Shrewsbury claim is well, what shall we say at best, laughable and pathetic.
I agree with the comments of everyone else in this stream. The status quo should remain because to respond to any “poll” is to give any of the options a legitimacy which, in principle is quite obscene and appalling for the people of Telford.
I am not in Telford, but they should fight this and fight like hell just as Kidderminster did the last time and if they lose, make the MPs pay.
Report abuse
Stuart,
If you believe this to be a political decision, I suggest you take a look at the details of the members of the NHS trust responsible for making this decision. It is their decision – no one else’s.
It was of course the Tories who insisted in the ’80s that we should start to run our NHS as if it were a business – which of course is an entirely inappropriate thing to do. It is as a result of that muddled thinking, much of which was designed to put public assets into the hands of the private sector (cleaning and catering contracts for a start) that we now have the pseudo-businesses of ‘Trusts’.
It’s clear you will continue with your highly selective memory, and your highly selective interpretation of basic facts, and in absolute denial that the Tories ever handed money hand over fist to the wealthiest people in our land, and will continue to so if re-elected.
Yet at the same time you voice your concerns about how poorly pensioners are doing. Talk about turkeys wishing to vote for Christmas…!
If trying to get some of that money stolen from us by greedy bankers back is ‘Marxism’ then I assume you would also translate Vince Cable’s proposed ‘mansion tax’ as Marxism too. It really does appear that most of the 20th Century’s political history is lost on you…
Report abuse
Why Health & Education cuts! They are the most important things in our lives.
We, the people of Telford and Shrewsbury should be protesting on the streets at the way we have been misled. Why are they even thinking of building a NEW Hospital when we cannot even keep these two working. Has no-one even thought about the traffic jams when trying to get to Shrewsbury. How many deaths will we have because of delays in treatment
Report abuse
Absolutely Disgusted, how right you are, but misled is not the word. The word is “lied” to. Until last week we were told that this Government were not going to make any “cuts” (albeit “cuts” to the Local Authorities budgets had already been applied, causing them to cut services), now we see the cuts already being announced. We also see the “dirty tricks” Department under Mandelson coming to the fore in targetting Osborne as “not being man enough for the job”. Look what the “men” have made of our economy, a total disaster.
As for Peter, when I lived on the Haygate Road in Wellington when our daughter was born 40 years ago, complications set in with my wife and she had to be rushed to the Copthorne Hospital in Shrewsbury. Don’t tell me anything about the excuses/reasons or anything else to justify this move and not being politically driven, the NHS Trust (and I won’t mention my connection with that, albeit, it is at an extremely senior level) have been forced to make this an option in their considerations.
As Absolutely Disgusted say’s, this is but one reason why there will be demonstrations on the streets if things continue as they are under this Government, there are also many others. Wait for the cuts to Education to bite.
Report abuse
‘it would cost three times as much and take longer to build’
So cost and time are prioritised above health needs of people then?
Why can’t we both keep our A & E departments and build a centre halfway between Telford and Shrewsbury for less urgent services such as day surgery, etc? No-one seems to be considering this prospect which could possibly go some way to satisfying all interested parties. I’m not saying it would definitely work but has it been analysed as a possible?
And this should not be about whose political side you are on – all parties should be working together to provide the best possible NHS with the funds available. If as much energy was spent trying to find workable solutions as is spent on blaming each other maybe, just maybe we could reach much more agreeable solutions on such issues
Report abuse
No need to cut any services, just get rid of the trusts, and let hospitals be responible for themselves.
Report abuse
why do others always think they know best. leave the prh alone just make it better for the biggest population in shropshire. it may only be 15 miles from telford, its 25 miles from newport and poss more for others. the prh do a brill job,i had a opp 2 weeks ago and have nothing but praise for the prh.my wife cant drive so it would have been impossible for her to have visit me. soo please please leave us alone we need are a&e etc. and im sure shrewsbury feel the same.
Report abuse