Shrewsbury maternity unit ceiling ‘near collapse’
Thursday 17th February 2011, 3:40PM GMT.
Shrewsbury’s maternity unit is a “time bomb” waiting to go off, Shropshire’s top NHS boss has claimed.
Adam Cairns, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust chief executive, says the unit is in such poor condition the ceiling could come in at any moment. He made the claim at a packed public meeting held in Telford last night.
The meeting was called as part of the consultation into plans to shake up Shropshire’s health service.
Speaking to nearly 300 people at the Holiday Inn Mr Cairns said if women’s and children’s services were not moved to the Princess Royal Hospital, the roof of the maternity unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital could collapse.
He said: “There are a number of issues to deal with in these proposals. One of these is the maternity unit at RSH which is in a very poor condition.
“A survey done on the building shows it is not conforming to water and hygiene regulations. And it’s structure is in such a poor state the ceiling could fall in at any moment. It could happen today or next year, we don’t know.”
Mr Cairns added the trust could not afford to rebuild the units at the RSH and space could be utilised in Telford.
He said: “One message we have been struggling to get across is why a new children’s unit at the PRH would be cheaper than if we rebuilt at Shrewsbury.”
He added: “To turn this space into a new children’s unit would cost £28 million. But at Shrewsbury the children’s unit is a standalone building.
“We would have to knock the whole thing down and start from the foundations up. It would cost £62 million which we cannot afford.”
Under trust plans, children’s and maternity services and head and neck services would move to the PRH with acute inpatient surgery consolidated at the RSH.
Cathy Salter, of Little Dawley, Telford, told the meeting she had given birth in both hospitals.
The 39-year-old mum-of-three said: “I had one of my children in Shrewsbury and the other in Telford.
“As a mother I don’t mind where I go, it only matters what treatment I receive.”
David Wright, MP for Telford, said the plans would see a balance struck.
By Peter Finch
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At last, the cat is out of the bag. This is why children’s services are moving to the modern PRH in Telford.
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But why did they try to close Telford first? Shrewsbury wards have a far higher number of patients going through them. If Shrewsbury was the failing hospital then it would have been first in line for closure.
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“But why did they try to close Telford first?”
Because of age-old bias to Shrewsbury over Telford.
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What rubbish. Don’t you think it makes more sense to keep services in a central location? Shrewsbury services have been so successful, closing them is a joke. This has been said time and time again by those that work there.
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No – the services should be where the population concentration is. And it’s not rubbish – try asking people in East Shropshire about the bias that they’ve experienced for decades against them and in favour of Shrewsbury.
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So are you saying you know better than the consultants that spoke against this move? Are you dismissing their expert knowledge? Surely we should all be listening to them.
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The maternity unit in shrewsbury does not just serve Shrewsbury it’s self but also the surrounding area stretching over the border into Wales, and thus has a far greater catchment area, therefore a larger number of visitors. Telford however has much better links to Wolverhampton and Birmingham (with a dedicated childrens hospital), so you, Mr Peabody, are stating that people with a child in mortal danger have to travel an extra 15 miles to Telford, just because its got a shiny new paint job?? Without trying to be insulting your arguement is proposterous!
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H St John Peasbody, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I’ve read yours and here’s mine. I think you are a selfish little man who I would’nt be at all suprised to learn that you were a mp for telford, the way you are talking. I’ve left a long comment explaining my position on this and what I think of your modern PRH and we obviously clash.
Not a single person on here would dispute that the PRH is a modern hospital but its tiny and nothing will alter where it is on the map. Thats the problem with it.Its close enough for some who can’t see a problem, but for others (who are just as entitled) its inaccessable due to distance and transport. Why don’t we both wait and see how many hundreds of thousands of signatures our petitions show and decide then who’s going to show some humility.
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Mr peasbody just hates Shrewsbury and takes any opportunity to stir up a bit of hate. This problem is not about Shrewsbury v Telford, it’s about the whole of Shropshire. His comments in the past have suggested a few families dotted about Shropshire have little to no say in this debate.
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@Duncan A child in mortal danger will travel a lot further than an extra 15 miles. Such a child would go to Birmingham Children’s Hospital or Alder Hay in Liverpool.
@Emily Thanks for the insult.
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As usual peasbody is wrong. They would be treated at Shrewsbury.
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Putting aside the controversy surrounding the proposed move of services from RSH to PRH, if the roof is as bad as Mr Cairns says it is, why are staff still being allowed to work within the maternity unit in such dangerous conditions?
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Why did they try to close Telford’s wards first? Originally it was better to move everything to Shrewsbury. After public protest they backed down. Now they want to close Shrewsbury and it seems they’ll say whatever makes that happen. If they close Shrewsbury’s wards they’ll cause misery and upset to so many families. Everyone from staff and patients to consultants are against this.
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Which families will suffer misery and upset?
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Families from across Shropshire. Adding to their travel times in an emergency is deeply unfair.
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Sorry! Let’s try that again!
It is not acceptable for families from Shrewsbury to travel to Telford. But it IS acceptable for families from Telford to travel to Shrewsbury.
Is that fair?
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This isn’t about families from just Shrewsbury and Telford. What about those from the rest of Shropshire? Telford has it’s children’s ward, it’s safe and I’m sure serves Telford well, but shrewsbury’s ward is bigger and more children go through it. Wouldn’t it make sense to keep it running? The building might be in a state, but the children it serves are just as important and still deserve a ward.
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Have you forgotten the rest of Shropshire? Ludlow, wem, church stretton, bishops castle, craven arms, I could go on. Is it fair to make them travel that extra distance? What about all those in Wales that use and PAY for these services, don’t they count?
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That building looked like it was falling down when we had our first child there in 2007. The maternity department is a hole that needs totally pulling down and services moved to Telford or rebuilt! we were never having our second there!
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I completely agree. I gave birth at Shrewsbury in 2008, and had to have my delivery in a side room away from the maternity ward, and was taken to a general ward with my baby to rest until I could arrange the journey back to PRH. The reason that I was unable to give birth on the “specialist” maternity ward that I had been taken to from Telford was that there was extensive building works being carried out in SHrewsbury Maternity Unit… clearly they weren’t extensive enough!
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After hearing what was said at the meeting at Shrewsbury football ground this closure is a terrible and dangerous idea.
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Perhaps Adam should resign if he hasn’t got the management ability to plan for ongoing building repairs?
It seems to me that all of these ‘so called’ Chief Executives resort to emotional blackmail (impending disaster!) whenever they lose control of the budget.
Privatise the NHS and let proper business people run it!
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All the more reason for a new Maternity Unit. Just not necessarily in Telford!
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If the ceiling is that dangerous why are these so called chiefs still allowing the unit to admit expectant mums in then and putting nursing staff and visitors at risk? Surely the building should be deemed unsafe and immediate repairs done? I have a whiff of someone claiming compensation!!!
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It is an absolute disgrace that the hospital managers have allowed this unit to get in such a state in the first place!Despite the poor state, i received first class care last year during my week state on the maternity unit at RSH and this is what really counts! If they do move to Telford the volume of patients will just lead to utter chaos = poor care that is not led by patient need!
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Kate – that’s like saying to someone who’s got an illness ‘why did you let yourself get this illness?’. Believe it or not, things age and the Trust have done all they can do to keep this unit open as long as they have so think yourself lucky that you were able to go there last year!
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Even if the roof needs replacing moving children’s services to the outskirts of Shropshire is not an option. I’ve heard the argument many times, that more children live in Telford, but that doesn’t make those that live in the many towns and villages across Shropshire any less important. Telford saved their ward, it wasn’t that long ago they were trying to close it, now it’s time to listen to the rest of Shropshire, SAVE OUR SERVICES TOO!
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Outskirts of Shropshire? Shropshire must be a small county then because Wellington is only 8 miles from Shrewsbury.
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Look at a map of Shropshire, Telford isn’t exactly in the middle. From Ludlow it’s quiet a distance. There are so many families in the rest of Shropshire who need these services, don’t they have rights? Telford saved it’s hospital, don’t we have the right to stand up and fight for ours? I think you have a problem with Shrewsbury in general. The services they want to close are very successful and save many lives, surely that makes them worth saving. Stop making this a battle between two towns, this is about people, families and children. It doesn’t get more important than that.
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It seems plainly obvious to almost all true Salopians that Shropshire is bigger than Telford, Wellington and Shrewsbury. Its the largest non-coastal county in Britain, the RSH has the largest catchment area of all the hospitals in Shropshire and has the largest amount of patients
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Harold, I do enjoy your responses normally, but you really are pushing the boundries if you want to claim Wellington is 8 miles from Shrewsbury !
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You’re right. It’s actually 7 miles from Cluddley to the Preston Island ;-)
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Preston island on the outskirts of shrewbury?
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Here Here totally agree! Shrewsbury people are soooo narrow minded-they think they fall off the end of the earth at Atcham Bridge! Theres a BIG world out there try exploring it once in a while!!!!!
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Shrewsbury people are narrow minded? At least we’re educated enough to know that it’s ‘hear hear’ and not ‘here here’. If you want to insult us, please ensure you are grammatically correct, at the very least.
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Outskirts of Shropshire? No. Not even close to the outskirts of Shropshire.
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You need to check a map.
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I’ve checked the map. Shrewsbury is closer to the Welsh border than Wellington is to the Staffordshire border.
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I did check a map. You are still in error.
By the way, distancecalculator.co.uk states the distance between Wellington and Shrewsbury as being:
“9.88 miles. The approximately estimated travel/road distance can be around 11.36 miles to 12.35 miles”
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What has Wellington got to do with this argument? Telford hospital isn’t in Wellington! Telford has it’s children’s ward, it has it’s maternity ward, so why are you complainIng?
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FYI PRH is in Wellington. Go check a map. and then apologise!
I pass it every day..
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Oh come on!!! If it were really that bad they couldn’t possibly justify putting so many people at risk of injury. This is scaremongering of the lowest kind. Shame on you Mr Cairns!
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I think the Management are responsible are they not, for the maintenance of a building, why hasn’t RSH services been better taken care of and if it’s so dangerous, why is it still having new admissions?
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I think they are trying to put an end to the protest against these closures. Scare people into giving up. Why are they still using these wards if there’s such a great danger that the roof will fall in?
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Shame on those that have let the maternity unit get into this state. Why not improve and providing the care that both mother’s, newborns and children need throughout shropshire why does everything have to be central. Expecting mothers should be able to make the choice of where to have there baby and it should be closer to home and not have to travel. If the roof is that as many have said then it would be unsafe for all. Why not be honest with the people of Shropshire. There is a cry for more and more midwifes but why would anyone want to train to be a midwife and then be expected to work under a roof that could go at anytime??????
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its very clear that both hospitals need a maternity units,but through mismanagement of nhs funds sees the threat of closure of the Shrewsbury ward!!! This shouldnt be become a war of the wards between Telford & Shrewsbury.
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Ahhh, good old Shropshire Star trying to stir it up again! I notice from some of your comments above that you weren’t at the meeting last night. I was and this is not what was said. (Hmmmm – wonder if the SS will publish this comment!)
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Our reporter was at the meeting.
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I know he was which is why I’m suprised at what I’m reading.
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Misslas, did he not make the statement about the roof then ?
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Shrewsbury or Telford ?
Which centre has the highest number of potential patients ?
Which centre has the higher predicted population growth ?
That should be the deciding factor for the future.
p.s Don’t include mid-Wales people . They should be treated by the Welsh NHS and should use Wrexham or Bangor hospitals etc.
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i live n newtown and to get to aber hospital would take far longer and is a much more dangerous road, the welsh health people have a agreement with shrewsbury to pay for the treatment of patients there so why shouldnt we use these services?????
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I agree, Emma.
Mind you, with the size of Shropshire (biggest inland county in England) and the size of Mid Wales why isn’t there a third hospital built on the border to serve this vast area?
The English NHS and the Welsh government could co-fund it.
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There is an old saying ‘Divide and conquer’ and that’s exactly what the suits and bean counters are doing to us here in Shropshire. It’s clear that both Telford and Shrewsbury need to retain their services, we need to unite as a county to save both units and not argue amongst ourselves as to which should stay, that way there will be twice the number of voices to be heard, if we continue to argue amongst ourselves then they have already won.
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I think some of the people who always say ‘let Welsh people use Welsh hospitals’ forget that if the Welsh weren’t buying services at the RSH it would be in serious financial trouble.
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I totally agree. There have been so many negative comments about welsh families not having rights to hospital beds in Shropshire. They pay their way and should have their say in this issue.
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Gordon Brown clearly didnt fix this roof whilst the sun was shining!!
probably a good thing now as the hospital can now just get a builder in to repair it rather than rent a roof at £10million a year of a private sector engineering firm
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I know this might sound stupid but
1 Why Did they let the building fall in to such a state of disrepair ?
2 Why are they still letting patients use the building ?
3 What have the highly paid managers been doing about this,a building takes years of neglect to get in to such a state ?
4 What about a program of on going maintenance
why wasn’t this dealt with when it first became apparant-repairs would have been cheaper ?
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The roof collapsed at Shrewsbury maternity 36 years ago. They did not shut the ward then.
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HOW ABOUT WALES- Some people in wales already travel 50 miles or more to get to Shrewsbury Aber dont have neo natal services or specialists consultants major probs get air lifted the caernafon Wrexham too far like Telford would be. We have used the Shrewsbury for years my daugther was born prem there 20 years ago the majority of powys mums give birth in Shrewsbury they out way mid wife led births in rural towns by hundreds.
Shrewsbury is centrally placed for everyone in wales and shropshire. Also Shrewsbury hospital has many access roads to it as Telford hospital doesnt this was shown 2 weeks ago when Telford m54 a5 came to a halt for hours after an accident this was brought up at fridays meeting.
Why cant they build a brand new unit on the shrewsbury site there is plenty of room?
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‘Why can’t they build a brand new unit on the shrewsbury site’
Did you read the article? Because it will cost the NHS (yes people, the very service having its budgets slashed) an extra 34 million pounds to build rather than move to Telford
Or maybe we should slash the number of nurses to make up the 38 million pound difference? What with there being a shortage of midwives and all, brand new unit, no-one to run it!
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Who said NHS budgets would be ‘slashed’ in the election, E?
Here is what the Conservative manifesto 2011 said:
‘We will guarantee that health spending increases in real terms in each year of the Parliament’
‘We will stop the centrally dictated closure of A&E and maternity wards’
‘We will put patients in charge of making decisions about their care’.
The Liberal Democrat policy document, ‘Modernising the NHS’ talks about ‘handing over services to patients, frontline doctors and nurses and local communities’ and giving them powers to ‘stop forced and unwanted closures of A&E and maternity units.’
All of us who have benefitted in the past from having excellent local services and want our kids to have the same benefits, must hold the Con-Dems to their manifesto commitments.
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Was this when the M54 was closed because of a lorry crash on the Shrewsbury part of the A5?
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Save Our Hospital ! Where are you Mark ???
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Why was the maternity unit allowed to get in to this state ? Was it a deliberate attempt to run the services down then reallocate ? There are houses and properties all around Shropshire a lot older than this that are in a fine state of repair because they have had ongoing repair and investment in the infra structure as and when it is needed. The maternity unit should be in the middle of the area so more people can access it easily not on the fringes.
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Scaremongering Mr Cairns? If not you had better start reading The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 because you are responsible for the safety of employees and any visitors to the premises – a roof falling in at any moment sounds as if you could be in the dock very soon!
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they should have knocked this whole building down years ago, it would make prime real estate and easily pay for the development of an out of town site or ideally a shared hospital between telford and shrewsbuey with high speed rail links for all the main areas
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The populous argument of governments and the NHS in recent past has been ‘services’ c;oser tp the [peole and ‘decision’ by the users of services. WHy just schools? Community hospitals provided excellent maternnity care; community midvives, likewise. Let both Telford and Shrewsbury co-exist; let the cuts fall on the excessive salaries and the never ending tiers and fancy titled management. Assuming that a dire Health and safety risk does exist, this would have shown in the risk management and not suddenly come to light. Let the axe fall where it belongs and remedial action taken now and nort as an argument to relocate to suit the ‘accepted’ plans of the top notch. Thatcher II or Cameron I – ‘the NHS is safe with us’, ‘let’s sell the family silver (what’s left of it – like the forest), or make it difficult for the NHS and bring in the private sector for ALL public services and subsidise them more than it was before and allow profit to rule the roost.
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There’s always contraception as a lifestyle option
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oh yeah because the world would survive so much better if nobody had kids.
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Sorry to be super pessimistic, but the world would be far better off if humans weren’t overpopulating it.
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This is absolutly rediculous, as has been stated to leave this roof to get to this state in first place breaks so many rules and if it was so bad it would of already been shut down, this is scare mongering to try and back up their claims to save money. I live in Oswestry and wont be allowed to give birth at the orthopaedic with my next child because of complications last time so I would have to travel 20 miles as it is to get to RSH, if they took away that service it’s another 20 miles again to get to PRH and then what if they’re full from the excess demands because an already busy and thriving hospital has removed their maternity services? For someone who’s relying heavily on other people for transport this is very worrying. More and more people will be rushed out without proper care and the strain on the staff will be immense add to that more people using ambulance services to fast track their way to a further hospital, are we really saving that much money in the long term? Time saves lives also so in emergencies we’re putting more lives at risk, babies who need extra care could have lives at greater risk and how many births will be happening at the road side now? What will the goverment be cutting next? Doubt it’ll be their massive wage packets.
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It is NOT 20 miles from RSH to PRH. Otherwise why was I only paid travelling allowance for 16 miles every time I had to travel from PRH to RSH?
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This is a complete no brainer, it will cost 28 million to move services to Telford, it will cost 62 million to rebuild wards at Shrewsbury. At a time where cuts are being made to the NHS budget of course the cheaper option makes more sense. Otherwise you risk embarking on a rebuild at Shrewsbury that doesn’t get finished for years because the money ran out and you still end up spending the 28 million moving services to telford whilst the rebuild is happening.
C’mon people, use some commonsense here, is it fair? No. Is it necessary? YES!
Or maybe some soon to be mothers who live in Shrewsbury would prefer to give birth in a unit where the roof could cave in on them mid labour rather that travel a few miles to a building that won’t fall down around their ears in the middle of it all!
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Where do you get your figures from, E?
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People we need to step back and look at some of the information that is coming out from Mr Cairns.
He has claimed that the roof in the maternity unit is and I quote “structure is in such a poor state the ceiling could fall in at any moment.”… So if this is the case how can Mr Cairns get (PI) Insurance cover for the building? If the structure is about to crash on the heads of the people working and using this building I would have thought NO insurance company would come anywhere near to insuring it, the risk is to big.
I feel what we are being told is what Mr Cairns wants us to be told so that we back him. A massive scare policy is being used!!
We are not doubting that work is required but why has this not been done… is Mr Cairns letting this situation get worse just to back up his own claims??
If this is a public consultation we should have options put before us and not to do or die situation we are being forced into.
This is not just a Telford vs Shrewsbury fight, it is what is best for all of shropshire and mid wales.
The people who have commented that this move is for the better are not seeing how this is effecting all those living in North, West and South shropshire as well as those who live just within Wales ( who do bring funds into shropshire when using RSH services ).
Mr Cairns, will I’m sure move on after this and very soon after this, but we will have to live with this for a lot longer.
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Too right Gary, can’t agree with you more!
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@ Emily, i don’t think insulting people just because they are trying to protect the child services at their local hospital is a particularly good argument..
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I agree, we all have the right to protect our children’s services, in Telford or Shrewsbury. It’s very upsetting that so many have the opinion that everything should move to Telford because that’s where everyone is. It’s not true, Shropshire is a big place and everyone from across the county has the right to treatment. Shrewsbury chdtens services are amazing and should be saved.
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Excuse me both but we seem to have our wires crossed here!!
I live on the shropshire side of the welsh border approximately 5 miles from welshpool and have lived in this area all my life. I went to high school in Bishops Castle and worked in that area for years afterwards.
I am totally against the move to the PRH as you will read in my other comment.
I’ve always had to travel and know exactly just how big shropshire is and the rediculous distances people from ludlow,church stretton, oswestry etc travel as it is.
I have to say I am slightly bewildered with why you chose to comment on mine which was directed towards a guy (peasbody) who really doesn’t have a clue how big shropshire is, and why you’d think I’d want the childrens services moved??? Read my other comment and you’ll realise I think.
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@ twisting my melon.
I am living the reality right now over the arguments being made to move the maternity/childrens services to the PRH and are one of many people who will be significantly affected by this. I am so sick of reading comments on here about the complaints being made by people who live around telford.
Although I am not unsympathetic of people having to travel to shrewsbury for treatment not available to them in telford, my argument will always lie with the people who live miles away from shrewsbury as it is.
I am one of those people.
I live 25 miles from shrewsbury, am 8 months pregnant and have an extremely poorly 2 year old boy who has been in and out of hospital (on this occasion) since thursday. We have 24hr open access to the childrens ward due to his condition.
On thursday I had to get up and out of the house at 6.30 to get my son to the PRH childrens ward to be sedated for an MRI scan of his brain, it didn;t go well and he’s been very ill since. After speaking of my concerns to the hospital staff, who incidently didn’t have a clue any medical background of my son,but for qualified to asscess his am safe to leave, we left, only to have to ring back the next morning with concerns over my sons health. When they checked his notes we were advised to take him back to telford and when the nurse realised how far away we were, she told us to take him to shrewsbury…doesn’t that say it all?? We went to shrewsbury, the doctors and nurses on that ward instantly recognised him and knew his conditions..we were admitted. The RSH might be old and need some well deserved TLC or complete re-building but the standard of care there can’t be faulted. As I said for people with miles to travel it makes a huge difference.
In a couple of months, I will have 3 children to consider and arrange care for when my little reece is ill, my partner doesn’t drive, so potentially i’ll be leaving 2 babies at home (1hr and 20mins drive away) with no way of them being able to visit us because of transport (and its too far for our families to travel)
Bearing in mind my position, I think the odd little insult is justified when I hear people moan for having to travel a few miles down the road who have good transport connections to shrewsbury and indeed have their own hospital and childrens ward and come to shrewsbury for care they can’t get from their own. For people living in wales, ludlow, church stretton etc…shrewsbury is their only option and seeming as though they’ve already in some cases driven an hour or so to get to shrewsbury,is it fair on them to drive straight past the RSH for an extra 30min drive up a bypass and motorway to get to hospital?? ofcourse it isn’t.
Everytime I read something on here for the move to telford to go ahead, I am insulted by people’s lack of compassion to those who already sacrifice for where they live, I am also just trying to protect child srevices at my local hospital. I hate to think of the consequences which my family alone will have to bear if the move does go ahead..it’ll be truly devastating for us.
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Surely if the roof could collapse at any given moment the facility should be closed with immediate effect.Obviously the welfare of your staff & patients is not a priority to you.Scaremongery me thinks? Shame on you.
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The consultation document says…
“Built in 1969, the maternity building at the Royal
Shrewsbury Hospital is in poor condition and very
cramped. The lack of space means there is only
one operating theatre to deal with emergencies
during labour. This is a safety concern. The
neonatal intensive care unit, also based in the
maternity building, is very short of space.
Even if money is spent on the building, its future
life span is limited to between five and ten years.
This accommodation is simply not good enough for
maternity care in the 21st century. Our proposal is
to move the consultant-led maternity unit and
neonatal intensive care unit from the Royal
Shrewsbury Hospital to the Princess Royal
Hospital, where space is available and new facilities
could also be built. This would cost an estimated
£28 million, which is affordable, whereas the
estimated cost of rebuilding at the Royal
Shrewsbury Hospital is £60 million, which is not
affordable.
The midwife-led unit at the Royal Shrewsbury
Hospital would stay at that site, with improved
accommodation, and outpatient antenatal care
would continue to be provided at the hospital.
With reduced numbers of children’s specialist
doctors nationally, our paediatric consultants are
increasingly concerned about staffing our two
existing children’s units with the right level of
doctors.
They believe that creating one unit for those
children who need to stay overnight will help
overcome this. There would still be children’s
assessment units at both hospitals.
Under our proposals, the children’s inpatient unit
would be based at the Princess Royal Hospital in
future. Not only is there more space available than
at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, but there are
more children living in areas of health inequality or
with vulnerable health needs located closer to the
Princess Royal Hospital. National research shows
they are likely to have a greater need for children’s
services.”
It doesn’t sound too unreasonable to me and don’t forget that services for older people will be centred in Shrewsbury, the hospital isn’t facing a total downgrade like the PRH was recently.
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I worked in a Victorian school in Birmingham the 1980s where quite large bits came off the ceiling at regular intervals!
If I’d had my youngest at hospital I would have had a 20 minute journey there by car. As it was I had him at home by choice.
I think a lot of women will be giving birth en route if they have to travel to Telford and public transport is not as available as in a city for prenatal assessment and care.
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Simple. Why don’t the mothers have their children at home like my wife did in the 1960s.
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Take it from a “old one” you can march but it will not make any difference.
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