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Shropshire ‘scared’ to challenge health changes, says MP
Thursday 10th February 2011, 10:43AM GMT.
Daniel Kawczynski
Shropshire residents are “frightened” of challenging proposals to relocate some hospital services from Shrewsbury to Telford for fear of losing them altogether, an MP has said.
Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury, accused the county’s health chiefs of a “lack of sufficient engagement” with the public over the mass reconfiguration of services in the county.
Under the proposals, women and children’s services would be concentrated at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital, with acute inpatient abdominal surgery consolidated at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
Adam Cairns, chief executive of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust, has warned the county could lose services by 2014, unless changes are made.
Spearheading a debate at Westminster last night on the “extremely emotive” proposals, Mr Kawczynski said he did not want to get into a “Shrewsbury/Telford pillow fight”.
But he told ministers people saw the move as “a gun being pointed to their heads” because there was “no plan B” on the table, no alternative options.
Telford Labour MP David Wright said: “If we are to sustain services in Shropshire, I think this is the best plan we are going to get.”
Wrekin Tory MP Mark Pritchard hailed the decision to keep an A&E department at both sites as a “breakthrough”.
Montgomeryshire Tory MP Glyn Davies argued all vital services needed to be accessible to patients in Mid Wales too.
Health Minister Simon Burns said it would be “inappropriate” for him to “influence or compromise” the consultation by getting directly involved.
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It would appear that Mr Kawczynski has not read all the documentation regarding the proposals nor looked at them in detail.
They are the only way forward taking into the financial deficient from the Labour government which does not provide sufficient funds to rebuild the maternity services at Shrewsbury
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It’s a scary thought to find myself agreeing with Daniel K MP.
If front line services aren’t to be cut (eh Dave?) then why not dump one lot of management and let the others run the two places.
Afterall – let managers shuffle up and down the A5 or video links) rather than people of Shropshire who, after all wouldn’t be using the services if they weren’t sick in the first place!
Too simple or too close to people keeping unemployement to the ‘other classes’?
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He started the pillow fight with his ” secondary ” comment.
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Lets not turn it into a Shrewsbury/Telford pillow fight says the person who said ‘Shrewsbury is the county town and therefore the most important community’! If it wasn’t for politicians and their shameful grandstanding and politicisation of many issues would we be in this position?
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I Met with Philip Dunne MP for Ludlow today and he told me that other Shropshire MPs were not getting into this in public because it has been turned into a Shrewsbury vs Telford argument and that does not help. We need to work together on this or as I said in the past united we stand, divided we fall, then we all lose out in the end.
I was also amazed when he told me that I was the first of his constituents to raise any concerns with him throughout this whole process so far. It’s no good just griping you need to get in touch with your MPs and make your voice heard.
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At least Daniel Kawczynski has come to the fight for Shropshire, this is a huge subject and I am appalled that the other Shropshire MPs have kept so quiet on this huge subject for their constituents. I have to say I sat at the meeting last night in wonder at the amout of retired councilers and administrators who had let us get into this mess in the first place, telling everyone what they should or should not be doing but not offering any ideas or solutions to help with an alternative way forward which is surely what we should be seeking.
I do not support the changes as they are being laid out, but we have to accept the way things stand now are not sustainable and a change has to be made. I implore everybody (on all sides) to take a step back and some more time to try and work out a better solution, because it is hard does not mean we should not try.
Listening to some of the comments last night gave me the impression that Shropshire has been treated like the poor relation in the West Midlands health system for far to long and we have lost out on so much funding that we have seen going elsewhere in the region. Maybe it is time for our Shropshire MPs to stop twiddling their thumbs and start lobbying on our behalves to get us dealt a better hand. Even Adam Cairns said he would do things differently and not go down this route if he had some more funds to work with, let us not forget he has only recently been appointed to his roll, a roll that has been done so badly for so long in the past he and his fellow board members now have a mountain to climb.
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Like post 5 said, Daniel K is the only MP taking any notice here. As a resident of Shropshire with young children I’m absolutely disgusted that it’s come to this. I don’t feel it’s fair to close Shrewsbury children’s services, so many families will be let down completely if this happens.
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We should all stick together on this one and fight these cuts.
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The central point for Shropshire as a whole is Shrewsbury – simple as that!
At the public meeting tonight it was acknowledged that most of the paediatricians and neonatologist are against this move as they believe it is unsafe simply because of the travel time involved. Surely the hospital managment should listen to the expert clinical opinion of its consultants who devote their working lives to saving lives of mothers and children.
I am amazed that the other Shrosphire MPs are not fighting the corner for their constituents many of whom will be more adversly affected than those in Shrewsbury. And I would hope that people get in touch with their MPs about this as they would then have to get involved.
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