Shropshire hospitals boss Tom Taylor has highlighted two threats to the future of patient services and repeated warnings that they could be lost to larger centres outside the county.

In his last briefing to the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust board before he steps down next month as chief executive, Mr Taylor stressed the importance of the trust gaining Foundation status and which he said is vital to it retaining its independence.

He said that failing to gain Foundation status was the biggest single risk that was facing the trust.

It was not a foregone conclusion that it would be achieved, he said.

Mr Taylor said it was believed that up to 30 trusts would fail to gain the status. They would be taken over by another NHS organisation.

“This is a real issue,” he said. Asked about the impact a takeover would have, Mr Taylor warned Shropshire could lose one of its two A&E units, which would be a “disaster”, and see cancer services “sucked” into big specialist centres outside the county.

Turning to plans to re- shape healthcare in Shropshire, he said these were having to be revised because there would be no capital funding available.

However, there was still a need to concentrate vascular surgery at either Shrewsbury or Telford to ensure services were sustainable and safe, he said.

It this didn’t happen, then surgery might be transferred to a centre such as Wolverhampton.

And if inpatient paediatrics were not provided from one site, the Royal College could withdraw the trust’s training status and Shropshire would lose inpatient children’s services altogether.

Looking at recent trust achievements, Mr Taylor said catering services at the Princess Royal Hospital had received a five-star rating from environmental health inspectors. The new medical ward at the hospital was fully open, along with the relocated medical assessment unit, he said.

The contract has also been signed for the new multi-million pound sterile services unit at Telford.

Mr Taylor has been in the job for nearly five years, and one of the most significant achievements during this time has been the reduction in MRSA cases. They have fallen from 59 a year to just 11 over the past 12 months.

Trust chairman Dr John B Davies thanked Mr Taylor for all his hard work.

By Health Correspondent Dave Morris