Shropshire Star

Star comment: Change of thinking on Future Fit?

The latest developments in the Future Fit process can hardly be called a shock, because Salopians have become so weary of the long drawn-out saga and their senses have become so dulled that nothing would surprise them now, including if the whole thing was scrapped and they went back to the drawing board.

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That has not happened, but there has been a certain amount of rubbing out of things on the drawing board – although there again, they seem to have been sketched in fairly lightly in the first place.

If you have been following you may be familiar with the suggested model of future health care in Shropshire which would see just one accident and emergency unit – this continues to be the main bone of contention – supported by a local network of five dedicated urgent care centres spread around the county.

The A&E centre would be for serious cases, and the urgent care centres would be like local casualty units for the walking wounded.

With a lot of the arguments about the siting of A&E being to do with travel times, the urgent care centres idea went some way to addressing the concerns of people worried about a more remote service.

David Evans, who is in charge of Future Fit, has now unveiled a new way of thinking about it. Instead of having dedicated rural urgent care centres, there will be extra services at doctors' surgeries or community hospitals.

Don't get hung up on the idea of having an actual building, he says. There will be rural urgent care, but some of it will be at home, and some from other places. Those places might not have a specific badge on the door saying "urgent care centre," he adds.

Despite what Mr Evans contends, there are going to be people who will indeed get hung up on the idea of having actual buildings for the simple reason that if there is a building you can see it, you can walk in it, and you know that it actually exists.

Doing without tailor-made buildings must be cheaper and will reinforce the suspicion that the driving factor in shaping the future of Shropshire health care is the cost, rather than what Salopians want and need.

To have a change in thinking of this magnitude now is a worrying sign that not only are the goalposts moving, but they are not really sure how to put the goalposts up.

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