Future Fit: Shropshire Council leader welcomes hospitals plan progress
Shropshire Council has hailed progress in major plans for the county's emergency hospitals as a "vital step forward" to "transform" the county's health system.
The Future Fit proposals for both Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford have faced a succession of significant delays, but cleared a major hurdle last month.
The 'Strategic Outline Case' for the plans has been signed off by the Government and the NHS, allowing progress to the next stage – with hopes that physical work on the scheme could begin next year.
The Future Fit plans, also known as the ‘Hospitals Transformation Programme’ (HTP), would see a shake-up of what services are offered at each hospital.
RSH would become the site for the county’s only full 24-hour A&E, and would also become home to consultant-led women & children’s services.
PRH would become the county’s centre for planned care.
Both hospitals will also have urgent care centres, while the Telford site will also have an ‘A&E Local’.
According to health bosses, the A&E Local would be “staffed by a multi-disciplinary team of health, care and community professionals”.
Shropshire Council's Conservative administration has welcomed the development, with its leader, Councillor Lezley Picton hailing the opportunity to improve services across the county
Ms Picton also spoke of the need to ensure that the £312m allocated by government for the project in 2018 is not lost.
She said: “The Hospitals Transformation Programme is not a magic wand that will solve all the challenges our health and social care sectors face. But it is a vital step forward that will stabilise, invest in and start then to transform a health system that is now under severe strain and cannot continue on as it has.
“It is key we do not lose the £312 million investment set aside for our hospital services that, if the delays witnessed over the last decade continue, we risk doing so.
“While there has been so much focus on A&E services, the reality is that it is changes in other areas where the most benefits can be brought.
“This will touch many more people than those who use A&E, while a 24/7 A&E service will remain on both hospital sites.
“Moving planned care to Princess Royal Hospital for example will see many people in Shropshire needing to travel further for this, but I believe this is a small price to pay if it means far fewer cancelled appointments and delays in operations and better cancer care.
“Equally a dedicated emergency department for the Integrated Care System (ICS) area will play a key part in reducing ambulance waiting times in Shropshire – an issue that this council and the people of Shropshire are rightly very concerned about."
Ms Picton added: “There will also be significant benefits that can trickle down to primary care such as at GP surgeries - again a pressure point very keenly felt by people in Shropshire - and our partners work to prevent people going to hospital in the first place by providing even more effective community health and care services.
“It can also help provide the certainty so badly needed by the whole ICS to attract the talent needed to work here and make our health care system more sustainable.
“The creation of the ICS this summer provides us with a new opportunity to work together to progress this much needed investment and improve health and wellbeing outcomes and reduce health inequalities for the people of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin.
“With inflation hitting the construction sector hard, longer delays simply means more costs, which makes it even more imperative that the ICS Hospitals Transformation Programme must move ahead and at pace. Further delays will simply be harmful to everyone’s health.”
The reaction from the other side of Shropshire has not been as positive, with Telford & Wrekin Council's Labour administration pledging to ask the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, to review the plans after she takes office.
