‘Selfishness and greed’ – MP’s verdict on hospital plans
Wednesday 19th January 2011, 2:30PM GMT.
Shrewsbury’s MP will take a delegation of leading campaigners straight to the heart of Government to protest at plans to transfer children’s services at the town’s hospital to Telford, it was revealed today.
Daniel Kawczynski said he intends to take the group to Westminster to meet Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley so he can hear their concerns “first hand”.
The MP has revealed he also held talks with Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street yesterday over the issue.
Mr Kawczynski plans a public meeting in February over the proposed shake-up and has asked bosses of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust to attend.
Telford MP David Wright today slammed yesterday’s comments by Mr Kawczynski, who claimed Telford was “secondary” to the county town.
He said: “I am extremely disappointed that Daniel feels he can’t support what is on the table,” adding: “Woe betide the Conservative Government if they downgrade services at the Princess Royal Hospital.”
Mr Kawczynski claimed Telford was encircled by hospitals, saying: “It’s swamped with hospital services and we have nothing on this side of the border and yet they still want to grab what little we have left. It’s cloud cuckoo land and it just shows the selfishness and greed of these people.”
Mr Kawczynski said Mr Cameron told him Shropshire Council has the power to instruct the Government to hold a full inquiry into the plans if the depth of public feeling is so great.
Full story in today’s Shropshire Star
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Mr Kawczynski claimed Telford was encircled by hospitals, saying: “It’s swamped with hospital services and we have nothing on this side of the border……”
Does this man live in some sort of alternative reality? Could he tell us where these hospitals are that encircle Telford?
The only thing I agree with him on is that there should be no loss of facilities in Shrewsbury – but remind him that his government is responsible for a potential battle for resources between the counties two main centres of population.
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How about Shrewsbury, Stafford and Wolverhampton?
People seem to forget that Shrewsbury also provides services for a large part of North Wales and given the transport links (M54) is harder to get to from the west than Telford is to Wolverhampton for example.
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Telford has Wolverhampton on it’s doorstep for a start. Stafford, Shrewsbury, even Birmingham are closer than a lot of people have to travel when getting to Shrewsbury hospital. Take it away and it’s even further. This can not be allowed to happen. WE NEED SHREWSBURY’S CHILDRENS WARDS.
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Yes Mr. Kawczynski, if Telford is encircled by hospitals list them and their distances from, Telford
Or are you talking rubbish again?
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I feel a HArry Hill moment coming on – a fight between our wonderful Shrewsbury MP and Mr Pritchard of Telford, What if anything does Mr Pritchard have to say about the comments of the Shrewsbury – not a lot I bet
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This can not be allowed to happen. How can anyone in their right mind think it’s a good idea to close these wards.
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It hasn’t been made clear why shrewsbury’s wards are closing when they serive so many families in this area. If you live in Oswestry, Newtown, Ludlow, Telford is just to far to travel. It would make more sense to close Telford.
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Oh yes – a town with 150,000 people and no hospital. Nice one!
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Anywhere over the Welsh boarder doesn’t count, the Welsh Assembly should use some of their spare cash to build a hospital in Wales. After all the Welsh get a lot of subsidies that we in England don’t.
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I don’t think Telfird should be closed either. I just think the most central hospital should keep it’s children’s ward.
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“The selfishness and greed of these people” ….What people would they be Mr Shrewsbury MP?
Do the maths. SATH cannot fund two units, not if they want to retain a level of excellence. For years and years Telford people have uncomplainingly travelled up and down the M54 to use the maternity and children’s services that are on offer at RSH.
The birth rate is higher in Telford. More young families live in Telford. The services at RSH are used more by Telford families.
It makes sense to locate the services alongside the greatest number of users.
Get used to it Shrewsbury. The M54 is a good road, and the Telfordites can vouch for that …..they’ve had to use it often enough.
“The selfishness and greed of these people” applies more to MP Mr K and his campaigning Shrewsbury constituents than to those people living in Telford.
Oh, and by the way ~ I live closer to Shrewsbury than Telford. I’m just neither short-sighted or greedy.
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I am a Shrewsbury resident and luckily have had few occasions to use Shrewsbury hospital.
I would like to point out that RSH doesn’t just cover the Shrewsbury area. I would be more than happy to travel to Telford for my hospital services as its as near as travelling across town to the hospital from where I live.
However,what about those living in Newtown for instance. It makes the journey and hour and a half to the hospital. That half and hour extra could mean life or death to some patients and further distress for families at an already difficult time. This is not about Shrewsbury and Telford its about a much bigger area.
Stop being so short sighted and see the bigger picture please!!!
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And PRH doesn’t just cover Telford. We live in a county with too many acres and too few people – there are no easy answers to this one. Causing a war between two towns is a weasly politicians’ trick to make sure they don’t get the blame for not funding properly.
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This will be terrible for so many families who depend on this hospital. There’s no way they can get away with doing this.
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The problem is indeed selfishness and greed – the selfishness and greed of those who want ‘everything’ on their doorstep, regardless of the harm they then inflict on others.
The facts are:
We have two hospitals
We cannot safely provide all services at both hospitals – courtesy of the last government’s reform of medical training and acceptance of the EWTD
so
some services have to be delivered from Shrewsbury, and others from Telford
Once you accept that services need to be split, you then have to decide which services to put where…and the age profile says Elderly Care in Shrewsbury, Mumsn Babes in Telford…..but I am sure the Hospital are open to any other constructive suggestions if anyone bothers to make any.
It is easy, but unhelpful to say ‘we want everything here’ without looking at the facts and suggesting practical solutions
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Well said
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This is just the lastest act that has seen the resources at our local hospital stripped away. His opinion that Telford is secondary to Shrewsbury is the opinion of a biggoted man who cant even get the facts right! How can this man state that the people of Telford are ‘greedy and selfish’ if this is the suggestions of the trust management who are responsible for both hospitals.
There should be a fair distribution of care across the greater area and not just for those who make the biggest scene in the media because they wont travel a few more miles. This is about providing the best quality of service.
Services such as consultant led maternity are already at Shrewsbury so how fair is it that new expectant mothers from telford who have complications must travel to Shrewsbury. Not all services can be there.
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My wife spent three weeks in the PRH whilst having our son last year and overall, it cost me hundreds of pounds to visit her every day.
Of course, I would have liked to visit her in Telford, but that is just how it is.
Shrewsbury people will just have to do the same and accept it when their relatives are in the PRH. Full stop. Just get on with it – you can’t have everything on an ageing hospital site that quite frankly, is falling apart in places.
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I assume you mean RSH?
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Dear Jbob
I believe you have NOT thought properly regarding the current issue. We are talking about childrens’ lives and illnesses and not in general. There are many adequate wards to deal with adults in Telford.
In addition, the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital serves other areas which are further away from Telford.
Childrens’ therapy/treatments etc they MUST AND HAVE TO STAY IN SHREWSBURY.
Thank you all for your time and appropriate common sense.
Fairness for all
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We’ve heard from David Wright so where is the comment from the Rt Hon Mark Pritchard – after all the hospital is actually in his constituency is it not?
Surprisingly quiet on this one Mark, nothing to do with the inflammatory comments being from a fellow Tory?
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The response is interesting now that the shoe is on the other foot for once.
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So those from Telford commenting really think that families who already travel miles, should shut up and travel for another 20-30 minutes to Telford? Seriously? If you live in Telford then you have so much more choice. Go to Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, Stafford. If you live in South Shropshire Shrewsbury is our only choice.
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Remember when there was no PRH? We all had to travel to Shrewsbury. Don’t expect a response from Pritchard.
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it was just a few short years ago that there was a campaign to save the PRH, also it was muted that PRH would have no A and E, I dont recall the the slops MP calling for the saving of it, he could have suported his “con mate do very little prichard” it will only get worse as GP’s take over the Finiacial side of things and will hire accountants etc, who will sell to the highest bidder, we could all end up going to Hospitals further afield, such is privisation and the USA route we are heading in.
Slops people, Oswestry and Wrexham are on your doorsteps.
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Lets keep the Welsh out of this, thier WAG should be providing care for them in Wales.
Look at the Demographics of the area, sure there are hospitals in the Black Country serving the million citizens over there, there are hospitals in Staffordshire serving the million people who live there. What makes any of you west Shropshire people assume they have the capacity to treat east Shropshire folk?
Lets look at the age profile of the area. Telford has a young and fast growing population (remember it is more than double the size of Shrewsbury already)while the rest of Shropshire is ageing and features slow population growth. It suggests to me that childrens services should be in Telford and elderly services in Shrewsbury if both hospitals can’t have the full range.
As for Kawczynski, I can’t believe someone even a tory politician could have the completely opposite view on almost evertyhing to me.
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A lot of people keep mentioning Newtown and Wales. Sorry but Wales is another country which provides its population with a lot of benfits we in England don’t get. So I suggest that the Welsh petition their represenatives to get a hospital built in Newtown. Yes, I know that Wales contributes to the treatment of it patients in Shropshire.
This discusion should be about whats best for Shropshire people. If we aren’t careful we’ll all end up travelling to Birmingham or Stoke.
By the way anyone who suggests that Telford is 30 mins from Birmingham should get out a more during the day. If we are talking about travelling to the new QE its more like an hour. And nowhere in Shropshire is more than and hour from Telford, even Oswestry is only 40 mins by car without a blue light.
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Please folks, don’t let this turn into a “Shrewsbury v Telford” squabble. Remember the old saying – divide and conquer.
Our politicians must be laughing their socks off about this, while no one is holding them to account for the apalling state of the economy that has led to this state of affairs.
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It’s hardly surprising it’s become SvT squabble;
Mr Kawczynski started it – “It’s swamped with hospital services and we have nothing on this side of the border ….” He started it!!!
Of course we can dismiss Mr Kawczynski as a closet Socialist – wanting to take away from those what have and give to them what need it. I trust he will extend this philosophy across all his parliamentary dealings.
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I know he started it, and is getting some very vocal support from the usual band of oh-so-superior Shropshire Telford-haters – but it’s nice to see that at least some of us are rising above it….
I like your dismissal of him as a closet socialist – do you think someone should tell him?
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shrewsbury hospital needs knocking down and rebuilding, services are being moved to telford to advoid cheif exec at shrewsbury from spending money on upgrading the hospital or better still building a brand new shrewsbury hospital. telford and shrewsbury are huge towns that need a hospital each. sack mp’s and save both hospitals
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well said bryan, your comments hit the nail on the head! sack mp’s and save money now!
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It’s not just happening in Shropshire. Maternity services in the Black Country moved to further east into Birmingham this week.
http://www.dudleynews.co.uk/news/blackcountry/8792183.Maternity_services_ready_to_move_from_Sandwell_to_Birmingham/
Anyone that thinks it’s easier for Telford and East Shropshire residents to get to New Cross, Stafford or Stoke needs to put their maps down and actually try driving the route – it’ll never be quicker than driving from Shrewsbury to Telford along the M54.
Concentrating maternity services in Telford makes complete sense, demographically it’s at the centre where the majority of it’s potential users live. As far as I’m aware, there will still be a full A&E service at RSH and we do still have the Air Ambulance for really serious emergencies. I understand why parents are concerned, and it would be ideal to have the same services at both PRH and RSH, but in the current climate of cuts, the proposal is the best option for the majority. Just a question, would it not be quicker for patients in the south of the county to travel to Hereford or Kidderminster?
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It’s ironic that Daniel talks of selfishness and greed. It is only because of the selfishness and greed of the very rich, and his government’s desire to protect their position that we need to make cuts in the first place. Where are the changes in the tax system to allow for the collection of the £billions that go legally and illegally uncollected each year?
This Telford vs. Shrewsbury stuff is just a diversion to take us away from the view that none of these cuts should be being made at all – after all, the coalition promised to protect front-line sercvices didn’t they?
Let’s also not forget that they have announced plans to effectively privatise 75% of our health service by giving the budget to privately-run GP practices. Now whilst I’ve received good treatment from many GPs over the years, I can’t recall ever encountering a well-run practice – with the notable exception of Lawley Medical Practice a couple of years ago – they really did seem to be on the ball.
Do we really want GP’s surgeries running much of the NHS? It seems that many GPs definitely don’t want this, and it does beg the question of how much of the NHS funding will end up in the profits of the privatee partnerships of GP practices, or in the pockets of private hospitals who will be able to muscle in on the NHS.
As for provision of services to Welsh residents, my understanding is that they have the luxury of free prescriptions. In the end, you pays your money and you takes your choice – if like us they had to pay for such services, they might have remaining money to build more hospitals.
It seems unfair that Welsh constituents should influence any decision over the future of Shropshire hospitals, and quite baffling that Daniel should seek to represent their interests over and above those of people living in Shropshire.
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Well said Peter!
The only thing I would add is that we still haven’t heard a word from Daniel’s Tory colleague and MP for the Wrekin….
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If only previous “leaders” at the PRH hadn’t wasted so much money.
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So, just don’t close either and make cuts elsewhere! Simple!
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