Progress must be made on Future Fit, says health chief

Peter Latchford, chairman of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust board, said changes need to be made to services at the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal hospitals, but delays in making a plan means further pressure is being put on the already stretched system.

Speaking at a meeting of the board held at the Severn Centre in Highley yesterday, Mr Latchford called for assurances that other decision makers understood the urgency of moving forward with the Future Fit proposals.

Mr Latchford said: "I think we are all agreed that doing nothing is not an option.

"I am worried that if there are further delays, what we will see happen is that by default, we will be choosing the 'do nothing' option."

His words come after a meeting of Telford & Wrekin's Clinical Commissioning Group on Tuesday, where members agreed to delay writing a letter of support for a new outline plan for the restructure of the hospitals until a joint meeting with counterparts from the Shropshire group.

The Future Fit plan will almost certainly recommend the closure of one A&E unit at either Telford's Princess Royal Hospital or Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Members of Telford CCG, which runs health services in the borough, deferred offering their support until more information about how acute medicine and the community fit project would work within the financial deficit recovery plan.

They said they wanted more assurances over the future of urgent medical care before any support was given.

But Debbie Vogler, programme director of Future Fit, told yesterday's meeting all the boards were in agreement that doing nothing about the state of the hospitals was not an option.

She said Future fit coordinators were "optimistic" that the work would run on track, with public consultation on the latest plan scheduled for December this year.

Non-executive director Clive Deadman called for more explanation to members of the public as to why the situation with the hospitals needed to be changed.

He said: "The public don't really understand why the do nothing option is not an option in terms of fragility."

His sentiments were echoed by the trust's medical director Dr Edwin Borman, who said that Future Fit needed to revisit the case for change at the hospital. He said that it was a positive move that would provide better care and not solely a cost-cutting measure.

Dr Borman said: "We need more clarity."