Future Fit: Ministers should make Shropshire A&E choice, says angry MP

Daniel Kawczynski said he was furious that plans for a single A&E at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital had stalled.

The Shrewsbury MP announced the launch of a task force of senior medics who would be lobbying the Government to demand action.

The MP spoke as bitterness and recrimination over the collapse of Future Fit continued.

Shrewsbury-based NHS bosses described delays in the shake-up of emergency healthcare in Shropshire as "irresponsible" and a "tragedy".

But leaders in Telford & Wrekin called for the whole process to be scrapped, saying it had lost all credibility.

Mr Kawczynski today said he was not prepared to let Telford & Wrekin Council "hold a gun to the heads" of medical experts who said change was needed.

Members of the clinical commissioning groups representing Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin heard NHS Future Fit board's recommendations during a meeting on Monday.

The Future Fit review recommended that the best of four options would be to have one A&E serving Shropshire and Mid Wales at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. The Princess Royal Hospital's Women and Children's unit would also be moved to RSH.

All six panel members from Shropshire CCG voted for taking the plans to public consultation – but the six members representing Telford & Wrekin CCG voted against.

The whole process will now go to an independent review, although Telford & Wrekin Council has pledged legal action if necessary to block changes.

Mr Kawczynski said health secretary Jeremy Hunt now needed to push through the recommendations himself, adding: "We are not going to allow the situation to stand where Telford Council, which is completely bereft of any medical expertise, holds a gun to the head of 300 local doctors, clinicians and consultants.

"I am forming a task force of doctors and consultants who will help me engage directly with the Secretary of State for Health.

"They will be coming to London to tell him what has happened and they will be helping me to formulate a series of written parliamentary questions. He now needs to force this through.

"I intend to use these senior doctors to shine a public spotlight on Telford Council and the town's CCG who are putting the lives of my constituents and constituents across Shropshire at risk."

During a meeting of Shropshire CCG in Shrewsbury yesterday Dr Julian Povey, clinical chairman, said he was "very concerned" about the situation.

Glyn Davies, MP for Montgomeryshire, added: "It is enough to make anyone watching this catastrophe unfold weep tears of despair."

But Telford & Wrekin Council's Labour leader Shaun Davies and other health campaigners have welcomed the decision to halt Future Fit and go to a review.

And he was backed by Telford's Conservative leader Andrew Eade, who added: "Clearly, Future Fit is not fit for for purpose."

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Mr Kawczynski warned lives could be lost because of the deadlock on the decision about the future of A&E services in the county.

He said Telford's emergency unit could close anyway if nothing is done to address the recruitment crisis at the county's two main hospitals.

Mr Kawczynski, who had accused Telford & Wrekin Council leader Councillor Shaun Davies of attempting to "blackmail and intimidate medical experts into submission", said many consultants working for the Shrewsbury And Telford Hospitals NHS Trust had warned him of the dangers of doing nothing.

He said part of his constituency was closer to Telford than Shrewsbury, and politically it was in his interests to see both A&E units retained.

But he said that clinicians had come to the conclusion that emergency services needed to be located on a central site, and it was not the place of politicians to argue with their judgement on medical matters.

"We are being told by medical experts that lives will be lost if this doesn't go ahead," said Mr Kawczynski.

"There is a real risk that consultants are going to leave, and if that happens we could face the situation where, in three or four months' time, one of the A&E units will have to close. That, by the way, would be Telford." He said it was now back to the drawing board after three years' work and £3 million of taxpayers' money.

Glyn Davies, MP for Montgomeryshire, spoke of his frustration, disappointment and concern about the future for NHS services in Shropshire and Mid Wales. He said NHS leadership in Shropshire had failed to face up to the problems staring it in the face.

Mr Davies said: "Anyone who cares about the delivery of NHS care to the residents of Shropshire and Mid Wales will be weeping tears of despair.

"After three years work and £3m expenditure, the recommendation of the Future Fit Board has not been accepted by the two bodies which commissioned it and the consultation we were expecting in the New Year will not now take place.

"It is a black day for the NHS in Shropshire and Mid Wales, which may well lead to migration of services out of Shropshire and Mid Wales altogether, and mean real threats to the future of the services we depend on. In all my years involved with public services delivery, I have never known anything like it. 'Three years, three million, nil progress'.

"The situation is too serious to be angry about. I just feel so sad for our children and the clinicians involved in delivering NHS services in Shropshire and Mid Wales. It's enough to make anyone watching this catastrophe unfold weep tears of despair."