Future Fit: Impact of Women and Children's Centre move to Shrewsbury 'not assessed'
NHS bosses leading the shake-up of health services in Shropshire are recommending to move Telford's Women and Children's Centre to Shrewsbury without carrying out an impact assessment, it has been claimed.
Telford & Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies today criticised Future Fit bosses, who he claims haven't carried out an impact assessment on plans to move the £28 million centre to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital – just two years after it opened at the Princess Royal Hospital.
He said: "How could they make any decision without having made the necessary proper assessment first? This makes no sense. Whilst the Future Fit board understood that the original move of the Women and Children's Centre was on the basis of health need and cost, they have chosen to reverse this decision at considerable additional cost and without even including the impact of such a move in the scope of its integrated impact assessment."
Telford & Wrekin councillors will meet this week to discuss whether to take legal action following the recommendation by the board of Future Fit to close the Princess Royal Hospital's A&E department and move its services, along with the services provided by the women and children's centre, to Shrewsbury.
The meeting, to be held tomorrow at 6pm at Telford College of Arts & Technology, will call on council members to endorse the launch of a judicial review into the process, if necessary.
Councillor Davies labelled Future Fit's decision making process "flawed" and said the case for retaining the centre is now no different to the case for the need for it when it opened in the town.
"Telford and Wrekin has the highest concentration of children and young people and women aged 16-44 with a higher level of risk factors related to deprivation, lifestyle and ethnic origin," he said. "This is further evidence that the decision-making process is flawed.
"We wrote to the bosses of Future Fit several times expressing our very serious concerns about the way this is being handled. Those concerns have been ignored."
He added: "That is why an extraordinary general meeting will call on all members of Telford & Wrekin Council to endorse the launch of a judicial review, if necessary."
