Health bosses are on target to cut the number of deaths at Shropshire’s two general hospitals.

Adam Cairns said the number of people who were dying at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital was falling. Mr Cairns, chief executive of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust, also revealed the trust’s financial health had improved.

He said the trust had been able to employ 30 more consultants, 93 more nurses and 11 more midwives.

At yesterday’s trust board meeting. Mr Cairns said that hospital mortality had fallen from a peak of 118 per cent of the average for similar hospitals in August 2010 to 105 per cent on a rolling 12 month measure.

The monthly figure for the last three months, in isolation of the 12-month total, was below 100 per cent of the average.

He said: “The number of deaths has fallen year on year, and this in hospitals where there are more admissions that before and with patients with more complex needs.

“If we go back to where we were that’s striking.”

Mr Cairns said a 20 per cent target was set by a group of doctors and medical staff as part of the process to put more of the hospital management in the hands of clinicians.

He said: “I asked the clinicians what is the one thing you would want to look back on and say you’ve achieved, and they settled on this.”

He said the change had been brought about by looking critically at how things were done in the hospital, better surveillance and reacting differently to patients showing signs of deterioration.

Mr Cairns also reported a significant improvement in the trust’s financial health, with six months in a row of breaking even.

Despite this though, he said the trust now employed more workers, largely because expensive agency nurses had been taken onto the staff.

The hospital had also been improved by a project called Bed Bundle, which manages admissions and discharges better to avoid patients being in hospital longer than needed.

The process means there are now 80 fewer beds across the hospitals, which gives more flexibility.