Shropshire Star

Future Fit: Ex-hospital boss says single-site model would save millions of pounds

Expanding one of Shropshire's existing hospitals instead of going ahead with the current Future Fit plans would save millions of pounds, a former health chief has said.

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David Sandbach, former chief executive of Telford's Princess Royal Hospital

David Sandbach, former chief executive of Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, claims introducing single-site working would save money that could be invested into community heath services.

He has urged health bosses to rethink the Future Fit proposals and consider a single-site model instead of separating emergency and planned care.

Under the Future Fit plans, a single emergency centre for the county would be based at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or PRH, with the alternative site taking on responsibility for planned care.

But Mr Sandbach has suggested that a 400-bed emergency hospital could be built on land close to RSH.

He says the redundant PRH site could then be used to co-locate the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham and the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, near Oswestry – creating a super site for specialist orthopaedic services covering the Midlands and North of England.

Alternatively, he suggests a new 400 bed emergency hospital could be built on the existing PRH site, or on land nearby.

He claims either option would cost millions of pounds less than the current Future Fit proposals, which could cost up to £312m.

Mr Sandbach said: "Hospital split site working is more expensive no matter how the facilities are organised when compared to single site working.

"The financial difference is significant so if a community chooses to have a split site system of service provision there are obvious consequences – a lot less money is available for services in the community."

In a letter to Dr Simon Freeman, Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group's accountable officer, Mr Sandbach said: "A single site model would release at least £37m per annum from the acute sector for reinvestment in primary and community care services.

"Such a figure would be enough to hire an additional 760 nurses in the community.

"If Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) did not have to run a twin site hospital service and had a single site hospital with 991 beds on one site it would be in a position of strength in terms of ability to retain and expand services, ability to recruit key staff and ability to manage its finances effectively."

The Future Fit public consultation, which features two options, is running until September 11.

The preferred option, which was signed off by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin CCGs, is for the emergency centre to be sited at RSH, with PRH taking on responsibility for planned care.

The second option is for PRH to be the site of the county's emergency centre, with planned care dealt with by RSH.

Urgent care centres would be set up at both hospitals.

Find out more at nhsfuturefit.org