Telford A&E: Petition to fight possible closure signed by thousands
An online petition launched to fight the possible closure of Telford's accident and emergency department now has more than 2,700 supporters.
NHS bosses had been expected to push for the closure of Princess Royal Hospital's A&E department last week, but instead delayed the decision because of a legal threat by Telford & Wrekin Council. It was thought that bosses were also going to recommend the transfer of its £28 million women and children's centre to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
A petition, calling for PRH to keep its A&E service and women and children's centre, was launched online by Ildi Berry, of Randlay, Telford, and is now being signed by scores of people every day.
It comes as Telford MP Lucy Allan has revealed that she has written to Future Fit boss David Evans questioning whether the review of the county's hospital services is paying enough attention to health deprivation.
She says Public Health England area profiles for 2015 show Telford as having a deprivation score of 24.9 compared with 16.7 for the rest of Shropshire. The average across England is 21.8.
Ms Allan is questioning whether the Future Fit review has given those figures enough weight when coming to any decisions.
"Both the data and the commissioning guidelines are available online and having examined these I have significant reservations about whether appropriate weighting has been given to Telford's health needs in Future Fit.
"I have written to Mr Evans to seek clarification from Future Fit that this data has been properly considered and the guidelines followed. With a deprivation level above that of the English average, it is essential that the women and children's centre stays at the PRH," she said.
Petitions against the predicted plans for PRH's A&E department and women and children's centre have also been launched by Defend Our NHS Shrewsbury, Telford & Wrekin and Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin.
Future Fit said the delay on reaching a decision on a preferred option for the reorganisation of the county's hospital services had come because of specific concerns.
But it insisted that it still hoped to go to public consultation in December.
