A £35 million loan is needed to fund the controversial proposed shake-up of hospital services in Shropshire, health chiefs revealed this afternoon.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is to ask board members to back the move for the multi-million pound loan at a meeting on Thursday.

They will also outline the business case for the proposed changes.

Under the plans women and children’s services would be downgraded at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, although it would become the main surgical centre in the county.

Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital would take on consultant maternity, neo-natal and in-patient paediatric units.

A report to the board says chief executive Adam Cairns wants it to back a £34.96 million loan application to the Department of Health to be repaid over 27 years.

The loan would cover the cost of the whole project.
The report says: “The investment set out for approval in the outline business case builds on the outcome of the public consultation and supports the implementation of the reconfiguration of some hospital services between the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.”
Mr Cairns warned Shropshire could lose vital services to other hospitals if changes were not made.
But more than 30,000 campaigners have signed petitions against the plans, which they claim will put lives at risk.
Andy Rogers, spokesman for the trust, today said: “For a project of this scale we need to borrow national capital resources that we will need to pay back.
“The outline business case is effectively the application for this funding.
“This level of capital borrowing can be approved on a regional level by the Strategic Health Authority and the case is due to be presented to them in September.”
Members of the board will also be asked to approve a work programme to develop a full business case subject to receiving the necessary support from the boards of NHS Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire County PCT and NHS West Midlands.
l Reaction – See Page 15