Neurology open again to some new patients in Shropshire

The service had to temporarily close to new referrals last year, with health bosses saying they were unable to manage demand due to staffing difficulties.

Neurology services treat conditions affecting the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, nerve, muscles and their connections.

Now, health chiefs say they have worked hard to clear the backlog and a long term fix for the neurology service in Shropshire is under way.

Simon Wright, chief executive of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust which runs Telford's Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, said: "We only have two substantive consultant neurologists and for a population of our size we really should have five or six to be able to manage the demand.

"That includes making sure patients are seen within the appropriate time slot.

"We've not been able to do that and we made the decision with our commissioners that it wasn't appropriate that other units outside of Shropshire were able to do it sooner than we were and we felt that was unfair for our patients. So we had to make the difficult decision to close to new referrals but we would still manage the follow-ups which is what we've been doing.

"Since then we've been talking with specialist commissioners about the fact that the tertiary centres both in Stoke and Birmingham, and now also in the Walton Centre, that they should be providing an outreach service for neurologists.

"They all employ large numbers of neurologists and that's a model that's fairly common outside of the Midlands.

"We are talking with all of those units about introducing that model into the county.

"That would really secure an excellent service for our patients and one then that will not be at risk at all in the future."

He said it was important that a permanent solution is found, adding: "I think that the conversations we'll be having with our colleagues in the specialist centres really need to come to a conclusion so that we can go forward with some confidence about how the service will look and feel."

Last March, Shropshire patients who were referred to see a neurology specialist were told they would have to travel to Wolverhampton.

The trust said at that point in time 500 people were on the waiting list.

To help meet the demand for referrals, Shropshire and Telford Clinical Commissioning Groups commissioned The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust to temporarily provide the service for new patients.