MP hopeful for return of stroke services to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital
Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies says he is hopeful stroke services can return to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, but accepts that running the department from a single site is better for patients.
Stroke services have been temporarily moved to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford due to a shortage of consultants in the summer, although stroke rehabilitation services remain at both sites.
The arrangement has been kept in place for now after hospital officials said it had resulted in better outcomes and recovery for stroke patients.
But more than 12,000 people have signed a petition calling for stroke and accident and emergency services to remain in Shrewsbury over concerns about increased journey times to Telford from Mid Wales and large areas of Shropshire.
Mr Davies and Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski raised the issue in Parliament yesterday. The Montgomeryshire MP asked if Under-Secretary for Health Jane Ellison agreed that the needs of patients in his constituency needed to be taken into account when NHS commissioners in Shropshire were considering where to locate services.
She said cross-border health care was "an area of great concern" and that she would be happy to discuss the issue with him.
Mr Davies said he was encouraged by the minister's response. He added that after speaking to hospital bosses, he accepted a single site was better for the service. But he added: "I want the stroke services to come back to Shrewsbury."
In October, Adrian Osborne, communications director at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust, said the trust was looking at three options for stroke services. They were going back to two separate sites, having a single site at the Princess Royal or having a single site at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
