Shropshire A&E closure will not wipe out debt

Up to £3.6 million could be saved by closing A&E at either the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or Telford's Princess Royal.

But Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust is forecasting a deficit of £17.2 million for 2015/2016 – and the saving made by closing an A&E unit would not significantly change the financial situation, trust board members were told at a meeting yesterday.

Trust chiefs have previously said one of the A&E units will close during the next decade as part of the Future Fit reorganisation of health services provided in the county.

Building a new hospital on a greenfield site between the two towns was ruled out last week. Health chiefs said it would cost the NHS about £15 million a year, diverting money away from other important services.

According to figures presented to yesterday's trust board meeting, running an emergency centre and consultant-led obstetrics at PRH and a diagnostic treatment centre at RSH would save the trust £3.6 million, while basing the emergency centre and obstetrics at RSH and the treatment centre at PRH would save £2.3 million.

A third option – running an emergency centre at Shrewsbury and obstetrics and a treatment centre at Telford – would save just over £2 million.

Neil Nisbet, acting chief executive at SaTH, said: "At the end of the process we will have a single state-of-the-art A&E department underpinned by urgent care services which are much more responsive.

"The clinical model describes a network of urgent care centres supported by a single emergency centre.

"A long list of scenarios was developed in order to put this model into practice.

"That shortlist has then been subject to detailed financial review to exclude those that are not affordable.

"Options passed the affordability test but one did not – the greenfield site.

"Each of the remaining options do not have a detrimental effect on the financial position but the trust would still have an underlying deficit."

The Future Fit work so far has led to a reduced shortlist which was presented and approved by the trust board yesterday.

Health bosses said this shortlist will now be subject to further scrutiny, particularly in relation to quality, access, workforce and deliverability.

That ongoing process of scrutiny will lead to an option or options for formal consultation later in 2015/16.

Parents from Shropshire will tomorrow demonstrate against the possible closure of a consultant-led maternity unit in Wrexham. Hundreds of mothers from Chirk and north Shropshire give birth there every year.

Protestors will be in Queens Square, Wrexham, from 11am to collect signatures and raise awareness of the threat.