Future Fit views from across border ‘vital’
Health bosses have taken their Future Fit consultation process into Newtown, as people were urged to make their views heard on the plans for health care across the border in Shropshire.
A consultation stage on where a new emergency unit should be based in the county is well under way, with a host of pop-up and consultation events taking place.
Yesterday it was the turn of Newtown to play host for the third event, as people from around Montgomeryshire were invited to the Elephant and Castle hotel.
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 and Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital to take on responsibility for planned care.
It would be supported by two urgent care centres, based at RSH and PRH.
In Powys, health campaigners and politicians were delighted when the recommendation was made to have an emergency centre in Shrewsbury.
A number of people turned out at the consultation that began in the afternoon and ran into the early evening.
Future Fit:
Chief operating officer of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, Nigel Lee, said it was vital people of Mid Wales had their say, just as much as anyone from other areas of the region.
He said: “The event is the third one and is about people from this area coming and having their say on things.
“They’ve being going around and asking questions of the clinicians, and that is what these events are about.
“The views of people in Powys are just as important as everyone else in the area the services will serve, and it is key they have their say.”
Other events had to be cancelled earlier in the consultation, due to concerns of safety for staff.
A defend our NHS protest group turned out at one event and health bosses asked protestors to let the staff get on and do their job.
Worried
But there were no such issues in Mid Wales as people dodged the blazing sunshine to go and have their say on health services.
Ellie Jones, from Newtown, was one of the people who turned up. She is worried that she wouldn’t be able to drive to Telford if the emergency care centre was based there, and she said lives could be lost if that was the case.
She said: “It is really important for us in Newtown and Powys that the care centre goes to Shrewsbury, if it isn’t I fear lives will be lost.
“I have had to use the A&E in Shrewsbury, and I’m worried I wouldn’t be able to drive as far as Telford if I had to go there.”
Throughout the four-hour event clinicians chatted with a large number of locals who attended from across the Montgomeryshire area. Sue Newham from Newtown added: “It is just as important people from Newtown and Powys have their say than anyone else.”
Kath Roberts-Jones from the nearby village of Kerry has had personal experience of using the Shrewsbury A&E, after her son suffered a serious car accident in 1999. She added: “We need it in Shrewsbury. There is so much travelling already. We bring benefits to Shropshire, and these are benefits Shropshire brings to us.”
County councillor Joy Jones added: “It is key it stays in Shrewsbury and it is good to see so many people come out.”
Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies returned from duties in Westminster to attend the event, and was pleased with how things went and how many people went to have their say.
He has been a staunch supporter of emergency care being in Shrewsbury and himself has been holding smaller meetings in villages to give people a better understanding of the process.
He said: "It is the opportunity for people in Montgomeryshire to have their say, and they have done that today.
"It has been a problem for 30 years and is one of the biggest decisions people have faced around here in terms of health care.
"I have been holding meetings in smaller villages, I had one in Berriew and 50 people turned up in Guilsfield last week.
"Some people believe they have already voted on the matter, that they have had their say because this has been going on for so long.
"But they haven't and that is why I am going out to speak to people.
"We have events in the bigger towns but it is good to go out and explain to people in the smaller areas exactly what is going on."
The decision is as big for people of mid Wales as anywhere in the area.
The large majority of people in Montgomeryshire heavily rely on services in Shrewsbury, with some in the south of the old county, in areas such as Llanidloes and Machynlleth sometimes using Bronglais Hospital.
