Furious residents left a crunch health meeting in Telford convinced that the future of acute services at the Princess Royal Hospital is doomed.

A former PRH chief, one of the hospital’s surgeons and a retired radiotherapist were among those who were scathingly critical of members of NHS Telford & Wrekin at their board meeting yesterday.

They claimed the basis for the shake-up was deeply flawed and downgrading of the PRH could cost lives.

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They were backed by an overwhelming majority of the 200 people who packed the crunch meeting at the Park Inn in the town centre.

Many of the crowd were residents who had gone to have their voices heard but left feeling the future of the PRH was doomed.

Both NHS Telford & Wrekin bosses and those at Shropshire County PCT, who both met yesterday, are now to meet in October to decide when plans should go out for public consultation.

This could lead to all acute services being on a single site from 2020, be it the PRH, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or a new hospital built in between.

A report by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust chief executive Tom Taylor has reported the findings of an 18-month study which says a stepping stone to the single site idea would be to transfer some acute services out of the the PRH to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital by 2012/13, or vice versa.

Mr Taylor’s report said transferring some accident and emergency services, acute and vascular surgery and in-patient paediatrics from the PRH to the RSH by 2012/13 was the best option.

NHS Telford & WrekinÊchief executive Simon Connolly told last night’s meeting that action had to be taken for 2012/13 because there was a move towards specialist surgeon calls rotas, which would take staff off the hospitals, general surgical rotas and make them no longer workable.

Ex-PRH chief executive David Sandbach told the meeting: “The stuff that has been put in front of you is rubbish and I will be writing a paper with some viable alternatives.”

By Simon Hardy