Future Fit: Little sign of light at end of the tunnel of Shropshire hospital saga

Concern for people in Telford will continue, as the Future Fit Programme Board has once again failed to put forward its preferred option for county services.

The pause may spell a stay of execution for the Princess Royal Hospital, which could lose its A&E and its new £28 million Women's and Children's Centre, just two years after it was opened.

But the people of Shropshire and Mid Wales are still left no clearer about what the future of their region's hospitals will be.

So what now for Future Fit?

In short, more talking and plenty of legal advice from lawyers who charge by the minute.

Future Fit bosses hope the delay will only be for the month or so, but after so many false dawns the danger is that the process will further fall into entrenched argument.

Lucy Allan said enough is enough.

She wants Future Fit effectively scrapped and the Government to step in.

Neither does she want a protracted legal fight, which would add to any delays and also cost the taxpayer dear.

The Telford MP said: "I have written to ministers asking for the Department of Health to intervene in the Future Fit programme.

"It is essential that Telford retains the Women's and Children's Centre and that the new emergency department comes to the Princess Royal Hospital.

"With significant pockets of deprivation and a need for these services in the immediate area, moving these services, at considerable cost, to an area of lower need would be wrong.

"Future Fit has been beset by delays and more stoppages are not the answer.

"Legal action would only be an option of last resort and a matter for the council to consider with care.

"To be threatening legal action at this stage is not the way forward. The council needs to make a strong, evidence-based case setting out the arguments."

Launched in 2013: It is announced there will be a change to health services in the county.

February 2014: NHS bosses set aside £1.145 million for the delivery of the Future Fit programme to redesign the way services are delivered.

October 1, 2015: David Evans, chief officer for Telford and Wrekin CCG, says the preferred option for the new emergency centre will be announced on October 1, 2015. But when the time comes the decision is put back, possibly until summer 2016.

December 9, 2015: SaTH says a decision will now be made in June 2017, following a recommendation in autumn 2016 and a period of public consultation.

October 5, 2016: A meeting of the Future Fit Programme Board delays a decision on the plans because of the possible legal challenge by Telford & Wrekin Council.

Her Tory colleague, Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski, has always campaigned for Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to keep its A&E.

He believed this week would finally bring a recommendation that would suit people in the town.

He today spoke of his disappointment, and his frustration at the campaign led by Telford & Wrekin Council which has culminated in a legal threat.

He said: "I am extremely disappointed that yet again we have a further delay as we are being told this move is essential in preventing the loss of life, and to further improve services.

"I hope that the CCG is now spending the month allaying any fears Telford & Wrekin Council has so that finally before November 5 an announcement will be made which will safeguard, protect and improve the provision of A&E care across the whole of Shropshire and Mid Wales.

"I believe that everything I have seen of this process has been meticulously careful.

"They have gone the extra mile to consider views of all sectors and communities and I very much hope this extra delay will lead to Telford analysing and accepting this because a judicial review will be an extremely expensive process and I have every confidence that the Future Fit Programme Board has crossed its Ts and dotted its Is.

"I have been told that lives will be lost unless these changes are made so it is obviously a very brave person who wants to put the process in jeopardy."

Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group, which buys in and oversees health services, was expected to meet to discuss a Future Fit recommendation on Tuesday, with Shropshire CCG convening the following day.

Those meetings will not now go ahead and will be delayed until a recommendation from the programme board is actually forthcoming.

The West Midlands Clinical Senate, a regional group of NHS experts, was also primed to meet to ratify a recommendation. That process has also been delayed.

Meanwhile there is the ongoing threat of legal action in the form of a judicial review by Telford & Wrekin Council.

Telford's council leader Shaun Davies and the authority's managing director Richard Partington penned a letter on the eve of last night's meeting which contained a clear message – go ahead with this and we will fight you in the courts.

It is a threat that has clearly been taken seriously, given the decision to wait, although there are also financial questions considering the council faces making another £50 million in cuts from its budget by 2020.

The council was this evening holding an extraordinary general meeting to discuss its next step.

Today's delay puts the whole process in doubt. Members of the Future Fit board had hoped to produce a recommendation that would be followed by a public consultation period of at least 12 weeks.

That was scheduled to get under way in December, a date that Future Fit boss David Evans insists is still achievable.

That consultation needs to be completed by March next year to avoid a clash with local council elections in May.

A final decision is then due to be made in the summer of 2017, after the elections are done and dusted and consultation responses have been considered, with implementation of the plans starting shortly after that.

But there remain more questions than answers to a sorry tale that appears to have a long way to run.