This is the letter Councillor Andrew Eade wrote to county health bosses over the future of Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital.

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Dear Mr Taylor/Mr Connolly,

Princess Royal Hospital Telford

I have been made aware of arrangements that are being made for the transfer of acute surgery, trauma services and associated specialties from Princess Royal Hospital to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

This is matter of major concern for the council and residents in Telford and Wrekin.

Such change should be subject to statutory consultation but it appears that you are not intending to meet that requirement on the basis of the change being needed to maintain clinical safety.

This situation is unacceptable as the result will be to deprive local people of access to essential acute health care services.

Clinical safety is clearly central to providing acute hospital care, but that could be secured by further investment in staffing at Princess Royal.

The wider situation of the review of local acute health care is about to be reported to the NHS (PCT) Board on September 22. There is evidence that the review of options for 2012/13 proposes that acute care will be centralised at Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal will be downgraded.

The effects will be seen in a secondary A&E service at Princess Royal for people in Telford and Wrekin and the surrounding areas. Other services such as paediatrics for children, maternity and neonatal services will be similarly centralised in Shrewsbury, with only a lower level routine health care service remaining at Princess Royal.

The evidence for relocating services from Princess Royal Hospital needs to be properly examined in a public consultation forum so that local people can express their views.

I understand that part of the argument being put forward is that there would be high capital costs for building at Princess Royal to accommodate the services required for the main A&E site and associated specialties. This is being used as a basis for avoiding a proper consideration of alternatives such as accommodating A&E in Telford by relocating less essential services.

The starting point appears to be, on every occasion, that your approach is to look for opportunities to move services away from Telford and we will continue to fiercely resist this.

Telford has a growing population and we have presented information to you about the need to develop further services and to make Princess Royal the primary acute health services site in the intermediate period up to 2012/13, and also as consideration for the long-term location of acute health services.

You leave me with no alternative other than to publicly oppose the moves that are evidently afoot to downgrade our local acute hospital services at Princess Royal.

I would welcome the opportunity to debate these matters more fully in a public forum as I have suggested.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Eade