MP angry at 'pathetic failure' over Shropshire A&E decision
Health bosses are guilty of a "pathetic failure" over the future of A&E at Shropshire's two main hospitals, an MP has claimed.
Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies was speaking after a decision on the location of a new single A&E unit at either Telford's Princess Royal Hospital or the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital was deferred.
Members of the Future Fit programme board, the body behind the decision, said the delay was because none of the three shortlisted options for change addressed a growing £20 million-plus deficit in the finances of the two hospitals.
But Mr Davies said that simply did not wash.
He said: "There has been a long and expensive £2 million process to decide what to do now.
"I'm told that initially, it was decided that both hospitals would remain – the Royal Shrewsbury becoming the 'emergency' centre while the Princess Royal would become the advanced treatment and diagnostic centre and that the Women's and Children's Hospital should be moved to Shrewsbury.
"I'm guessing here, but there must have been a mighty row. I suspect arms were thrown up in the air in protest and horror.
"Anyway, no decision was taken – deferred now until next summer. After all that consultation and expense, no decision. Catastrophe.
"Spokespersons for the Future Fit Board are trying to tell us the reason was that none of the proposals they were considering wiped out the predicted future deficit. But we have known that for months. I'll take some convincing that it wasn't just a pathetic failure to take what would inevitably a tough decision.
"We are headed for massive deficits – this year's is expected to be £20 million – and serious winter failures, plus decisions being taken out of the hands of local clinicians, who should be the people best placed to take them."
The preferred option for health bosses was to build a new emergency centre to house A&E on a single site, on green land somewhere in between the two existing hospitals.
But it had to be ruled out after the £500 million-plus costs were deemed to be unaffordable, leaving a straight choice between Princess Royal or Royal Shrewsbury for the new single A&E.
David Evans, of Telford Clinical Commissioning Group, and Brigid Stacey, of Shropshire CCG, have said it was unlikely that a strategic outline case would have been approved by central bodies like NHS England, the Trust Development Authority and the Treasury.
It was therefore agreed to defer a decision on naming a preferred option.
