Fresh calls to axe Future Fit health shake-up
Fresh calls have been made by a Shropshire health campaigner to axe Future Fit after the consultation into the future of emergency health care across the county was dubbed a “tell and sell” exercise.
Councillor Andy Burford, who co-chairs the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, made the remarks earlier this week, saying many people felt the proposals to create a countywide emergency department at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and have planned care at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford was “a foregone conclusion”.
Gill George, chairwoman of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Defend Our NHS, has claimed the process is a shambles and should not be allowed to go ahead.
It comes as figures released at the halfway stage of the Future Fit consultation show nearly half of the respondents want RSH to be the site of the county’s sole emergency centre.
Ms George said: “Future Fit is about hospital cuts – many fewer staff, and very brave assumptions about a reduction in people getting sick and needing hospital treatment.
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“Looking after people at home or close to home instead is absolutely right – but it can only work if the staff and resources are available.”
She claimed there was no transparency in the Future Fit consultation, adding: “Behind all the empty rhetoric about better care, people’s lives are at stake here.
“Future Fit is a shambles, and that gets more obvious day by day.
“It really is time to pull the plug on Future Fit.
“We need money for patient care and frontline staff – not PFI schemes and vanity projects.”
Information released this week revealed that 49 per cent of people so far have “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that RSH should be the base of the county’s emergency centre, with planned care at PRH. Out of those responding 32 per cent agreed with the alternative option which would see PRH becoming the county’s emergency centre and RSH the site of planned care.
Documents show that 797 people have backed RSH as the site for the emergency centre, while 513 have said they would prefer Telford to be the location. So far 47 per cent of people, a total of 770, “disagree” or “strongly disagree” with the idea of RSH hosting the emergency centre.
The public consultation will end on September 11.
For more information on how to take part visit nhsfuturefit.org
