Telford A&E ‘closest ever’ to overnight closure
Reassurances were today made that the trust running Shropshire’s two main hospitals is doing all it can to avoid an overnight closure of Telford’s A&E.
But the boss of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), Simon Wright, has admitted it is probably the nearest the trust has ever been to taking such steps.
Health chiefs have been forced to decide whether to close Telford’s A&E department overnight over safety concerns after a consultant resigned.
If bosses choose to activate their contingency plans, A&E at Princess Royal Hospital would close between the hours of 8pm to 8am for up to two weeks. Night staff from PRH would be relocated to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
The trust should have around 20 doctors but is operating with just nine. The consultant who has announced his resignation is expected to leave shortly.
Mr Wright said: “He’s made some choices about working abroad for a period of time.”
He said the trust wanted to keep the opportunity open for the consultant to return in the future, but added that he would be away for at least a year. Mr Wright said the trust was working with NHS Improvement as well as other A&E departments.
He said bosses were also looking at locums but they would need to be part of the on call rota and agree to an enforceable six-week notice period. The recruitment of ex-colleagues has also been considered as an option and SaTH is talking to other NHS trusts, Mr Wright said.
However, he added the contingency plan may need to be brought into force if the situation cannot be resolved.
Level of certainty
He stressed the trust was doing its best to avoid this from happening.
Mr Wright said: “The key thing is having the consultants on the rota.
“We need to have a level of certainty about whether other hospitals can provide us with the support we are asking for. If it’s no then we are left with locums or direct appointments.” Mr Wright said conversations with other trusts had been positive, but that they faced their own challenges. Speaking about how likely it was that the contingency plan would be implemented, Mr Wright said: “We are probably nearer to that decision than we have ever been because of the circumstances we have been put in.”
SaTH has struggled to recruit doctors for its A&E departments, with health chiefs citing it as one of the main reasons for its desire to create one emergency centre at Shrewsbury as part of the Future Fit health review.The contingency plan is expected to be discussed by SaTH’s board will discuss the plan tomorrow.
