An overwhelming majority of readers believe acute services should be concentrated at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, according to the interim results of a Shropshire Star poll.

Those favouring the transfer of some acute services from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to the PRH outnumbered readers who felt the opposite should happen by more than three to one.

More than a third of all readers who responded to the poll were not in favour of any significant changes in the provision of hospital services in the long term, after the shake-up in 2012 to 2013.

A further third wanted all acute services concentrated from 2020 at a new hospital which they felt should be built in the county while just over a quarter wanted the PRH to be the focus for such provision.

The poll appeared in the Shropshire Star on September 19 and has been available online since.

Readers were asked to complete a voting form on the options health chiefs are currently discussing.

The options cover provision from 2012/13 and from 2020 onwards and the Shropshire Star is today offering readers another chance to have their say by completing the coupon.

Health chiefs are considering whether, by 2012/13, to transfer some the most serious trauma cases plus acute surgery, in-patient paediatrics, obstetrics and neonates from the PRH to the RSH, or vice versa.

In the long term, the options are to concentrate acute services either at the PRH, the RSH or at a new hospital which could be built in the county. An alternative open to the health chiefs is to leave things largely un-changed from whatever is decided for 2012 to 2013.

The Shropshire Star poll attracted 301 votes for the 2012 to 2013 options, of which 74.08 per cent were in favour of transferring services from the RSH to the PRH, with 23.92 per cent opting for the reverse.