Telford A&E crisis: Council leader seeks cross-party support for urgent action

Cross-party support will be sought by the leader of Telford & Wrekin Council when he tables a motion asking for the authority to get behind another call for the Health Secretary to intervene and prevent the night-time closure of Telford’s A&E.

The emergency department at Princess Royal Hospital will close between 8pm and 8am from next month, for at least six months, unless additional staff can be found.

Telford & Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies will table a motion at next week’s meeting of the full council calling on councillors to put pressure on Health Secretary Matt Hancock to stop the planned closure.

It asks for him to allocate extra middle grade A&E doctors and nurses and provide central funding to help PRH acquire a new radiology scanner.

It also calls on Mr Hancock to work with the Home Office to expedite stalled visa applications from doctors and fast track successful applicants to work in A&E at PRH.

The motion, which will be seconded by Councillor Richard Overton, says: “This council is gravely concerned by the planned overnight closure of PRH’s A&E due to start in November.

“This council has seen this coming for the past two years, and from October 2016, the leader has contacted the Secretary of State numerous times to warn about the situation at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH).

“Now at the 11th hour, this council again calls on the Secretary of State to intervene to support the key priority agreed with SaTH and all necessary actions to prevent the overnight closure of Telford’s PRH’s A&E, namely: To allocate extra middle grade A&E doctors and nurses to SaTH as a matter of urgency as current staffing levels make keeping two A&Es open impossible for the trust to maintain; Work with the Home Office to expedite stalled visa applications from doctors and fast track successful applicants to work in A&E at SaTH; To provide central funding to help SaTH acquire a new radiology scanner at PRH to ensure its A&E can remain open overnight.”

The council will meet on Monday at Oakengates Theatre at 6pm.

SaTH’s trust board voted unanimously in favour of the night-time closure of A&E at Princess Royal Hospital during their meeting last month.

The board will meet again later this week.

The trust is blaming staff shortages, with major gaps in consultants and middle-grade doctors.

SaTH says a closure could be avoidable in the ‘short-term’ if it is allocated an additional seven middle grade doctors and 15 A&E nurses.