Future Fit: Labour chiefs call for complete rethink of Shropshire health plans
Labour officials in Shropshire and Mid Wales have written an open letter to health bosses calling for the controversial Future Fit proposals to be withdrawn – less than a week after the long-awaited public consultation launched.
Heads of Labour Party branches in Telford, The Wrekin, Ludlow, North Shropshire, Montgomeryshire and Shrewsbury & Atcham have united to fight against the planned changes to hospital services in the county.
In an open letter to Dr Simon Freeman, accountable officer at Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), and David Evans, chief officer at Telford & Wrekin CCG, they say the plans do not offer a sustainable future or meet the needs of communities.
The letter - see it in full below - states: "At a time when our local NHS faces an annual shortfall of some £135 million as a direct result of year-on-year government underfunding, we need a long-term vision for our local health and social care services and the investment to go with it.
"Instead, Future Fit offers nothing more than a short-term cost-cutting exercise which will leave us with just one A&E department (or so-called emergency department) to serve the whole of Shropshire and Mid Wales while reducing other key services and making others harder for patients and their families to access.
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"What is more, Future Fit will require a capital expenditure of £312 million which will be part funded through PFI-type deals and incur interest charges of at least £11m a year which will lead to still further cuts in our health services."
It says the public consultation, which launched on Wednesday, is an exercise designed to "divide communities by forcing them to choose between two much-needed hospitals".
Officials have also expressed "shock" that funding arrangements to bring any plans to fruition are yet to be finalised.
The letter continues: "We will stand up for our communities and campaign for the maintenance of A&E departments and other essential services at both hospitals and for fair funding for Shropshire’s NHS to provide the highest quality of care for all of us, when we need it and whatever our income or postcode.
"We urge you to withdraw the current proposals and replace them with a strategic plan designed and funded to meet the needs of all the communities of Shropshire and Mid-Wales."
The letter has been signed by Peter Bradley, chairman of The Wrekin Constituency Labour Party (CLP); Tim Finch, secretary of Telford CLP; Charlie Scotton-Peters, chairman of Ludlow CLP; Gillian Blackburn, chairwoman of Montgomeryshire CLP; Roger Walker, chairman of North Shropshire CLP and Alan Mosley, chairman of Shrewsbury & Atcham CLP.
Dylan Harrison, secretary of The Wrekin CLP and a former Telford & Wrekin CCG board member, says Shropshire's NHS is in a "critical condition" and Future Fit will make matters worse for generations to come.
He said: “If we’re serious about improving local people’s health and well-being, we need investment in community and public health services and in social care as well as in our hospitals. "Instead, Future Fit offers us a short-term cost-cutting exercise which sets one community against another and forces us to choose which of our hospitals should be downgraded.
“Most people share our belief that high quality healthcare should be available to all of us when we need it and irrespective of our income or postcode. Future Fit breaches that principle and we hope that local people will join us in calling for the CCGs to think again.”
Catriona Graham, secretary of Shrewsbury & Atcham CLP, has called on people to reject both options put forward in the public consultation.
Mr Finch, from Telford CLP, added: “The CCGs need to go back to the drawing board and this time prepare plans which prioritise the health of our communities rather than the slashing of services to cut costs.
“And our local MPs need to come clean to their constituents: either they support their government’s policy of starving the NHS of essential investment or they must join us in condemning Future Fit and go back to ministers to demand fair funding for Shropshire’s health services.”
The 14-week public consultation, which features two options, launched on Wednesday and the first public exhibition giving people the chance to talk to health chiefs and clinicians will happen in Telford tomorrow.
The event at Meeting Point House will run from 3.30pm to 7.30pm.
The preferred Future Fit option, which has been signed off by both Telford and Shropshire CCGs, is for the county’s emergency centre to be based at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) to take on responsibility for planned care. It would be supported by two urgent care centres, based at RSH and PRH.
The second option would be for PRH to house an emergency department and for RSH to become a planned care site.
The consultation documents and details of how people can have a say are available at nhsfuturefit.org
The open letter in full:
Future Fit: Not Fit and No Future – An Open Letter
Dear Dr Freeman and Mr Evans
The Constituency Labour Parties of Shropshire and Montgomeryshire are united in their rejection of the Future Fit proposals for the reshaping of our local NHS which neither offer a sustainable future for our health services nor meet the diverse needs of our communities.
At a time when our local NHS faces an annual shortfall of some £135 million as a direct result of year-on-year Government underfunding, we need a long-term vision for our local health and social care services and the investment to go with it.
Instead, Future Fit offers nothing more than a short-term cost-cutting exercise which will leave us with just one A&E department (or so-called emergency department) to serve the whole of Shropshire and Mid Wales while reducing other key services and making others harder for patients and their families to access. What is more, Future Fit will require a capital expenditure of £312 million which will be part funded through PFI-type deals and incur interest charges of at least £11m a year which will lead to still further cuts in our health services.
We very much regret that local Conservative MPs have welcomed a package which will result in expensive new buildings but around 40 fewer medical hospital beds, some 330 fewer nurses and none of the previously promised improvements to the community NHS services, public health programmes and social care provision we so urgently need.
In addition, a down-graded Princess Royal Hospital in Telford will lose its A&E department and its new £28 million Women and Children’s Centre, the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital will no longer undertake planned operations and rural areas will lose their Maternity Units. The ambulance service will be placed under still greater pressure and patients will have to travel further for routine treatment.
We are open to any set of proposals which will improve the level and quality of care for our communities. But we cannot support measures which will have the opposite effect and which place both patients and staff at risk.
Moreover, we deplore a consultation exercise which is designed to divide communities by forcing them to choose between two much needed hospitals.
Finally but not least, we have grave misgivings about Future Fit’s viability. We were shocked to see from Dr Freeman’s tweet on 30 May that “the exact structure of funding has yet been finalised” (sic) though it is likely to involve the sale of NHS land as well as private finance. In addition, we see from SaTH’s latest annual report that, though the Future Fit business case depends on a reduction in the Trust’s deficit to £10.1 million by 2020-1, it is actually forecast to rise this year from £17.4 million to £20.5 million.
We would be grateful to know how you justify proceeding with Future Fit before you can be confident whether, how, when and at what cost it can be funded.
We will stand up for our communities and campaign for the maintenance of A&E departments and other essential services at both hospitals and for fair funding for Shropshire’s NHS to provide the highest quality of care for all of us, when we need it and whatever our income or postcode.
We urge you to withdraw the current proposals and replace them with a strategic plan designed and funded to meet the needs of all the communities of Shropshire and Mid-Wales.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Peter Bradley, Chair, The Wrekin CLP
Tim Finch, Secretary, Telford CLP
Charlie Scotton-Peters, Chair, Ludlow CLP
Gillian Blackburn, Chair, Montgomeryshire CLP
Roger Walker, Chair, North Shropshire CLP
Alan Mosley, Chair, Shrewsbury & Atcham CLP
