THE HEALTH NEEDS of expectant mothers and children in Mid Wales are being ignored by Shropshire health chiefs in their battle to keep vital hospital services in the county, an MP has claimed.

It comes as figures revealed almost 800 mothers from Wales gave birth at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in 2008 and 2009 and more than 1,000 children from the area had overnight stays in 2008 and 2010.

Glyn Davies is campaigning to keep crucial healthcare at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital following plans by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust for a shake-up of services at the county’s two main hospitals.

Under the proposals, women and children’s services would be relocated from Shrewsbury to Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital.

The Tory MP said the figures he obtained in written parliamentary answers for births and overnight stays bolstered the case for services to remain as they are.

He said a change would mean people in Mid Wales adding another 30 minutes on to the hour-long journey to get to treatment.

“This emphasises the importance of the maternity services in Shrewsbury to the people of Mid Wales,” he said. “I think inevitably these figures make our case even stronger and I hope the PCT take notice. I plan to write to the PTC to tell them what the implications are.

“We have had three public meetings and 800 people have turned up and all those people have said the same thing – which is that we want all maternity services, including consultant-led maternity and paediatric services, to remain in central Shropshire at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and not moved to the eastern boundary in Telford.

“We want them to be accessible to us.

“But what we are seeing is the Trust ignoring the needs of the people of Mid Wales and focusing on the needs of Shropshire only, and we just think we are not being treated properly and fairly.”

Adam Cairns, chief executive of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust, warned key facilities in Shropshire could be lost to hospitals in Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Stoke, unless changes are made.

A consultation is under way on the proposals.

By London Reporter Sunita Patel