Future Fit: Shropshire's hospitals' future in the spotlight
Health leaders will meet this week to discuss starting a public consultation on the future of the county’s major hospitals.
The meeting follows an independent review into the process of reorganising Shropshire’s main hospitals, which health chiefs concluded had not provided any “material evidence” to change their original recommendations.
The original recommendation had included a preferred option – that Royal Shrewsbury Hospital becomes the base for emergency care and Princess Royal Hospital Telford becomes the centre for planned treatment.
The recommendation will be considered on Thursday by the joint committee, at 6pm at Clayton Hall, Shrewsbury College.
Following the joint committee, assurance will be sought from local scrutiny boards and the NHS England assurance processes prior to going to public consultation.
When a formal public consultation is launched, the Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) will ask people their views on which hospital should become an emergency care site and which should become the planned care site.
A statement from David Evans, chief officer for Telford and Wrekin CCG and Simon Freeman, accountable officer for Shropshire CCG, said: “The programme board reviewed an independent report on the process undertaken so far and an impact assessment on the women and children’s services, before reviewing their recommendation made in November 2016.“The programme board determined that there was nothing in the reports that materially changed their decision and therefore is making a recommendation to the joint committee to progress to public consultation on all clinically and financially viable options. This includes a preferred option of the emergency care site at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and planned care site at the Princess Royal Hospital.”
Telford & Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies said he was disappointed the meeting was not being held in Telford.
“We asked that this meeting be held in Telford given that the communities that will be most affected by this decision are in Telford and Wrekin and eastern Shropshire,” he said.
A report from KPMG, which has now been made public, raised three areas of concern.
As well as funding, they include the need for a proper plan for the future of community care, and the disagreements between groups in Telford and those in Shrewsbury about where services should be based.
The review has taken eight months and cost £50,000.
Councillor Davies points out the report by KPMG highlights a lack of training and clear criteria for the scoring process, when the Future Fit team was deciding where services should be based.
He added the report did not rule out the possibility of Telford being made the county’s trauma centre in the future.
