Shropshire Star

Councillors will be asked to back Shrewsbury A&E motion

Councillors in Shrewsbury will be asked to back a motion calling for their town's hospital to retain its A&E department.

Published
Royal Shrewsbury Hospital

A motion will be put to the meeting of Shrewsbury Town Council's finance and general purposes committee on August 1, where councillors will be asked to adopt the statement which opposes the closure of the A&E unit at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Shropshire Council was asked to consider the motion at its meeting last week, but instead adopted an amendment which stopped short of calling for RSH's A&E to stay open.

The decision was in stark contrast with a move from Telford & Wrekin Council which launched its A&E 4 PRH campaign and made nearly £100,000 available to publicise it.

The Shropshire Council motion was put forward by Councillor Pam Moseley, who represents Monkmoor in Shrewsbury.

She has now submitted it to the town council for consideration, and also voiced her disappointment that the county council did not support the public demand for RSH to retain its A&E unit.

She said: "I was very disappointed at the outcome on Thursday. I think we should do more.

"Telford is spending £100,000 and that is their decision. I was not asking for money, more a gesture of support which would meet the public mood.

"I think the mood here and in the west and the south is that Shrewsbury is important because people in Telford have other options. There is no other alternative for people at this end of the county."

She added: "Certainly Telford & Wrekin councillors have come to that view about protecting their own and we are here to protect our residents and certainly there is the feeling that we want to keep an A&E within striking distance."

The motion councillors will be asked to support says: "The recent decision by the Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group to sign the sustainable services programme strategic outline case letter of support to the governing body board of Shrewsbury & Telford NHS Hospital Trust is a further step towards the acceptance of the outline business case, which will lead to the closure of one of Shropshire's two accident and emergency departments, with the strong possibility that this will be at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

"Concerns have been raised in many quarters, including by the local medical committee which represents local general practitioners; it has described the assumptions of the Future Fit process as "optimistic in the extreme" and has concerns about the likely impact on the primary care and community services sectors.

"This council therefore strongly opposes any proposals which would lead to the diminution of emergency care facilities available to Shrewsbury residents, through the downgrading of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital from an emergency care centre to an urgent care centre."

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