Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski to raise Future Fit with PM

An MP will raise his concerns about delays to the proposed £320 million shake-up of Shropshire’s hospital services with the Prime Minister tomorrow.

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Daniel Kawczynski

Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, accused Telford & Wrekin Council of being ‘medically illiterate’ for holding up the county’s Future Fit scheme.

He will tell Prime Minister Theresa May that lives were being put at risk by the delay at Prime Minister’s Questions tomorrow.

The plan, which would see Shropshire’s emergency services centred on a new, enlarged unit at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, while Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital would be developed as a centre for planned care, was approved by both Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin clinical commissioning groups in January.

But the decision was called in by Health Secretary Matt Hancock in March following representations from Telford & Wrekin Council and MP for The Wrekin Mark Pritchard.

Mr Kawczynski said he would be asking Theresa May what the point was in devolving powers to local health experts if their decisions could be over-ruled in that way. He said the plan had been drawn up by people at the ‘coalface’ of providing medical services in the county, and there had been an extensive consultation process.

“We have secured £320 million to back that up,” he said.

“We have backed those clinicians and provided them with the money, when everybody said it was just a pipe dream and we would never get the funds.

“Now, six years after we have asked all those clinicians for their advice, we face more delays because a medically illiterate body that is Telford & Wrekin Council can hold a gun to our collective heads.

Decide

The doctors and clinicians are saying that lives are being put at risk as a result of these plans not being implemented.

“We have got to decide, either we back those doctors and clinicians, or we don’t.”

Councillor Shaun Davies, leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, accused Mr Kawczynski of name-calling and misrepresenting the views of the council, the community, and many doctors in the area.

“It is this council that continues to fight for services for Telford & Wrekin and those Shropshire Council communities around Telford & Wrekin and we will not be bullied into silence,” he said.