Surgery site changes in force at hospitals

Big changes to adult surgery have come into force at Shropshire’s two main hospitals.

The move, part of a £35million package of changes being carried out over the next two years by the trust which runs the Princess Royal and Royal Shrewsbury hospitals, means that a number of adult operations will now be carried out only at Shrewsbury.

These include surgery involving the arteries, intestine, stomach or kidneys which requires an overnight stay.

Hospital bosses say the majority of patients will not notice any change as outpatient appointments and day surgery will continue at the RSH and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.

Steve Peak, interim chief executive of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “This is the first of a series of changes we are making to our hospital in order to keep our services in the county and ensure that our doctors are in the right pl-ace at the right time to care for our patients.

“Consolidating inpatient surgery at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital will allow us to provide the very best surgical services to patients across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Mid Wales.”

Inpatient breast surgery will remain based at the Princess Royal Hospital. Trauma and orthopaedics procedures will continue on both sites. Head and neck inpatient surgery is currently based at the RSH but will move to the PRH in the autumn.

Inpatient gynaecology services will remain at Shrewsbury, but are scheduled to move to PRH in 2014 as part of the new Women and Children’s Unit.

A spokesman for the trust said if a GP suspected a patient needed urgent surgical care, that patient would be sent to the RSH.

If a patient arrived at Princess Royal in need of surgery, they would be taken to the RSH. As part of the changes, the Royal Shrewsbury now has a new surgical assessment unit and a surgical short stay ward.