NHS managers in Shropshire have revealed they will make a decision in July on planned changes to paediatric and urology services in county hospitals.

A move to downgrade the night time children’s service at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital has caused uproar. But there have also been concerns voiced about the idea of treating all urology inpatients from across Shropshire and Mid Wales at Telford.

Many of these patients are elderly and some could face long journeys to the Princess Royal. Both proposals are contained in a strategic service plan which was the subject of a consultation exercise.

It ended last November and since early this year, a joint sub-committee of the Shropshire County and Telford & Wrekin Primary Care Trusts has been studying the responses, of which there were nearly 6,000.

A “significant majority” of these were said to be from the Telford & Wrekin area and strongly opposed to the paediatric proposal.

The joint committee has been meeting monthly, examining, for example, new data on the demography of the county and also taking another look at such things as medical manpower levels, transport costs, the financial plans of the Shropshire NHS, the Hospital at Home initiative, and the long-term strategy for services across the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal sites.

A statement today from the two PCTs says: “As a result of formal public consultation the joint committee has collected and discussed the additional information requested and explored the challenges and alternatives raised.

“It is anticipated that subject to Telford and Wrekin PCT successfully completing its current process of appointment of non-executive directors to the board, then the joint committee will make formal recommendations to their boards in July.

“The PCTs plan to hold concurrent board meetings on July 10.”

By Dave Morris