A major shake-up of hospital services in Shropshire is needed to keep services within Shropshire, a health boss said today.

Adam Cairns, chief executive of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, told his board the county had already lost some and was “on the brink” of losing more. There were real challenges which had to be faced, he said.

His comments came at the first of four crunch meetings taking place on a pivotal day which will help determine the long-term future of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford’s Princess Royal.

Health officials and many clinicians are warning that changes are needed to ensure services remain safe and sustainable and are not lost to bigger centres such as Stoke and Wolverhampton.

But campaigners claim the proposals could put the lives of mothers and babies in danger.

Their main fears are over plans to move women and children’s services from Shrewsbury to Telford.

The extra travel times, they say, pose a serious risk to emergency cases in the west of the county and mid Wales, and more than 33,000 people have signed petitions opposing the move.

Under the proposals the Royal Shrewsbury will become the main centre for surgery.

Mr Cairns said today there were “real challenges” facing health services which needed to be tackled.

“This is a really important day,” he said. “Decisions will be taken which will affect hospital services for many years to come.”

He later told his board the proposals had gone through a set of “substantial” assurance steps to ensure they met NHS guidance.

Mr Cairns said if the proposals were approved , these checks would continue during their implementation.

The hospital trust board, the first to meet, was expected to “commend” the proposals to Shropshire County Primary Care Trust and NHS Telford and Wrekin, which in turn have been recommended to give their support “as a basis for the development of more detailed implementation plans”.

A report says that of 1,124 consultation questionnaires returned, 28.8 per cent were “strongly supportive” of the proposals, 25 per cent “supportive”, 11.7 per cent against 30.6 per cent “strongly against.”

By Health Correspondent Dave Morris