MP calls for Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin councils to be scrapped and replaced

Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski said he has formally asked government health secretary Jeremy Hunt to make an estimate of the potential effect on staffing, administrative and other costs of replacing Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council with a single unitary authority.

He also called on Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) to merge.

It comes after members of the two CCGs rejected NHS Future Fit board's recommendations during a meeting on Monday. The Future Fit review had recommended having one A&E serving Shropshire and Mid Wales at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. The Princess Royal Hospital's A&E would be downgraded and its Women and Children's unit would also be moved to RSH.

In a letter to Mr Hunt, Mr Kawczynski says: "You will know I have kept you up to date throughout a long, drawn out period as the Future Fit board has been gathering evidence and working on the Shropshire project.

"After three years of this work and £2 million spent, I must tell you were have reached a crucial point in the process.

"We have put our faith in the independence and inpartiality of our two CCG boards and the process has come up with a proposal from an emergency centre at Shrewsbury with urgent care centres at both Shrewsbury and Telford and the relocating of the children's and maternity wards back to Shrewsbury which is currently based at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital.

"I was looking forward to this decision being ratified by the two CCG boards.

"However, this move was blocked, as the six Shropshire CCG members voted for and the six Telford CCG members voting against.

"Under such circumstances I am concerned there was no casting vote."

Mr Kawczynski plans to take a delegation of senior consultants to meet Mr Hunt to deliver first-hand evidence of some of the "extraordinary delays and obstacles" they have encountered.

"I believe that having two CCGs in Shropshire makes no logical sense and that there will always be a divide when it comes to deciding where healthcare services should be located," he added.

"I respectfully suggest that consideration should now be given to the merging of Shropshire and Telford CCGs."

Mr Kawczynski is calling on his fellow Shropshire MPs to back him in his radical shake-up.

He added: "Almost 11 areas in the country are going through this same process and are making progress.

"We have stalled and I am really fearful that this could lead to us losing £300 million of government money.

"That would be the single most important investment in Shropshire for decades.

"I have been talking to senior doctors and surgeons and we are calling for one CCG, one health trust and for the abolition of Telford Council.

"Every other county in England has one council, one hospital site and one CCG.

"They work together for the better of their county. We are not doing that, we are fighting each other.

"We need to campaign collectively for Shropshire. There are serious icebergs ahead of us if this situation continues."

The questions were formally submitted to Mr Hunt yesterday and an answer will be given during a session in the House of Commons.