Shropshire Star

Shropshire A&E at 'tipping point' says trust, as Telford council agrees vote of no-confidence on overnight closures

A&E services are perilously close to "tipping point", according to the board that runs the county's two acute hospital.

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Oakengates Theatre @ The Place, where the meeting was held.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust said it would be "failing in its duties" if it did not plan for potential closure of the Princess Royal Hospital's emergency department at night as staffing levels continue to be stretched.

The situation within the hospitals was revealed in a letter sent to Telford & Wrekin councillors ahead of a full meeting held at Oakengates Theatre.

Members of the council agreed a vote of no-confidence in the trust over the overnight closure proposals and called on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to intervene. The motion had been agreed by Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors.

Deputy chief executive at SaTH, Neil Nisbet, sent a letter sent to the council in response to the no confidence motion.

He said that Sath has five consultants, and four locum temporary specialists to cover the A&E departments at both the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital. They should have 20.

The closure could start from September, should staffing levels get worse.

In his letter, Mr Nisbet said: "As a trust board, we are absolutely committed to maintaining services at PRH, as well as RSH. But to do this we do have to have difficult discussions or make tough decisions to ensure all our patients are safe at all times.

"The potential overnight closure of A&E at PRH – and I must stress that it is just a potential overnight closure - is one such topic. No decisions have been made and we are doing all we can to avoid having to close A&E at PRH at night.

"We must have business continuity plans in place for our A&Es – like other services – to ensure we have a plan in place so we can still run them safely should we reach a tipping point, such as consultants or locums leaving as our staffing levels are currently stretched."

He added: "Shrewsbury is a designated trauma unit so the A&E there must stay open 24/7 – which is why our business continuity plan suggests closing A&E overnight at PRH.

"We currently don't always have on-call consultant cover, nor cover at weekends, at PRH A&E, senior cover is provided by associate specialists with consultant support by telephone from RSH as the trauma unit. This is clearly not satisfactory.

"More work needs to be done on NHS Future Fit but we need to have a short term plan in place now, in case our staffing situation worsens."

At the meeting, Council Leader Shaun Davies said he was still concerned over changes to services at PRH.

He called on the secretary of state to intervene in the future of the PRH and said it was time for a change among senior leadership at the hospitals trust.

Councillor Andrew Eade, Conservative party leader, said the problem is not money but that SaTH is failing to attract consultants to work at the hospitals.

Councillor Angela McClements said: "You have to look at the strength of feeling from people.

"We've asked the secretary of state to interview on a number of occasions and he's refused.

"Surely now he can put his head above the parapet."

Members unanimously passed the motion