Shropshire and Powys partnership ‘valued’ despite hospital row

Last week, the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust in Chester caused a row with the Welsh Government. The trust said it would only be allowing patients from Wales to access its Accident and Emergency, or maternity services, but nothing else.

In response, Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford said if the Chester trust would not admit patients from Wales, it would see a cut in funding. The situation a few miles up the road has caused concern for Powys health campaigners.

Many residents, especially in north east Powys, are treated by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. Others area also treated by The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH), NHS Foundation Trust, near Oswestry.

Powys county councillor and Health campaigner, Cllr Joy Jones (Non-aligned – Newtown East), said: “It’s awful to think that any hospital would make such a decision. The row between health boards/trust regarding payment should never impact on patient care.

“Patients need to be able to access care without having to worry about where it is going to be provided. I am concerned it could end up having some impact here in Montgomeryshire, especially if Wrexham Maelor hospital pick up the patients from Chester.

“Some patients from our area use Wrexham Maelor and are under consultants from there.

“The Welsh Government needs to sort out this problem swiftly as a lot of patients in Wales have to rely on English hospitals for our healthcare and treatment.” “I really hope this isn’t the beginning of a problem with other English health trusts ending up in dispute with the Welsh Government and other heath boards in Wales.”Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) buys services from other health boards and works closely with The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTh) and The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RJAH) in Gobowen near Oswestry.

In a joint statement, was released to the Local Democracy Service by  PTHB, SaTH and RJAH.

They said: “We greatly value our partnership working, which helps us to ensure people living in border areas receive the high quality care that they need. Discussions to  agree contract arrangements for 2019/20 are continuing and our joint expectation is there will be no funding issues that would lead to disruption to cross-border flows for Powys patients.

“We continue to work closely together in accordance with the statement of values and principles issued by the Department of Health (Westminster) and Welsh Government last year.”