Shropshire Star

Future Fit: GPs fear workloads will rise if one Shropshire A&E is lost

Doctors continue to have concerns over the impact of a plan to reorganise Shropshire's hospitals, according to a leader of GPs.

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Simon Hodson, of Shropshire Local Medical Committee which represents GPs, said there were fears the closure of an A&E department would greatly increase the workload of his members.

He made the comments at an extraordinary meeting of Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, called to decide whether to back the latest step of the Future Fit review.

He said: "There seems to be a predication in the strategic outline case that even more will be done in the community, and there is anxiety that the total resource allocation will be inadequate and specifically the resources in general practice will be inadequate. Especially when it is already under strain."

The packed meeting took place at Shirehall, Shrewsbury, and had to be stopped several times while room was made for members of the public.

Shropshire CCG overwhelmingly agreed its support for the strategic outline case for Future Fit, which proposes only one of Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital Telford retaining its A&E.

The support will allow the process to proceed after it stalled when Shropshire declined its backing despite Telford & Wrekin CCG offering its support. However, the letter of support includes a number of caveats and requirements.

One of the demands states: "The Strategic outline case makes a number of assumptions about the future model of community and primary care services. Given the interdependencies of Future Fit and Community Fit, the CCGs need more assurance of the viability of these assumptions."

Stuart Knight, who represents the county's south GPs on Shropshire CCG, said that they had agreed to provide their backing but would want more information before agreeing to support the next stage.

He said: "I think the practices want to see what a potential model looks like and need to see some flesh on the bones at this stage."

David Evans, accountable officer for both Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin CCGs, said that support for the proposals is not guaranteed. He said: "We have nine months to a year to get this right. If it is not right at that stage either or both CCGs could say we do not like this we want to halt this now."

Meanwhile, lay member of the CCG board, William Hutton said he was concerned Future Fit is being designed to suit hospitals and not community services.

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