Call for independent inquiry into Shropshire 'national disgrace' hospital ambulance delays

Ludlow councillors Tracey Huffer and Andy Boddington have joined forces to call for a full independent inquiry into ambulance handover delays at Shropshire’s accident and emergency departments.

Councillor Huffer, who has worked in the NHS for 40 years, earlier this month won the backing of the full Shropshire Council to get the issue on the agenda of two of its key scrutiny committees.

But she and councillor Boddington have their doubts over whether this will have the clout to get anything done.

Now they are calling for a full independent inquiry to get to the root of all the issues, including bed blocking and discharges of patients into social care.

Calling the situation with handover delays a "national disgrace" Councillor Boddington said: "The current scrutiny committee system at Shropshire Council does not have the resources to deal with an inquiry of this complexity.

"And the scrutiny committees lack teeth. It needs an independent select committee, led by Shropshire Council, to get to the bottom of what is happening and identifying solutions."

Councillor Boddington thinks while improving ambulance response times is much needed it won't solve the problem unless "we eliminate excessive handover delays at our hospital A&Es."

"The extra ambulances will just lengthen the queues outside A&E at the Royal Shrewsbury and Princes Royal Hospitals (SaTH)."

Councillor Huffer said she plans to ask Shropshire Council's ruling cabinet to get behind the independent inquiry when it next meets.

"We need to push this on now," she said.

"It is no criticism of the current chairs of committees - it is probably unfair to ask them to do this. What we need is an independent chair to go into all the complicated details," she added.

"The health overview and scrutiny committee does not have the clout - it is one of the failings of the scrutiny process. Our scrutiny process just doesn't have the teeth."

Councillor Huffer wants any inquiry to look into the lack of carers in the county - which can mean that people are stuck in hospital wards waiting for a package to help them move back into the community.