Shrewsbury health hub: Plans being shelved is 'massive relief' to residents, insists leader

NHS bosses have confirmed work on the proposed Shrewsbury Health and Wellbeing Hub has been paused indefinitely after a capital funding blow.

It comes after six NHS England "Cavell Centre" health hub projects in the country, including in Shrewsbury, were put on hold by NHS England in March due to a lack of funding.

A local health chief insisted it was a "huge disappointment" to suspend the project. But Belle Vue councillor Kate Halliday, who has been leading a working group scrutinising the proposals, insists it is a relief for Salopians who had concerns over travel and continuity of their care.

She said: "While the announcement of the indefinite pause to plans for the health and wellbeing hub is a 'huge disappointment' for NHS bosses, it is a massive relief for many residents in Shrewsbury who faced losing their local GP surgeries, especially those who were uncertain about how they would travel to the proposed hub.

"Belle Vue faced losing two GP surgeries in the proposed hub plans and I have not experienced such upset and opposition to any other issue in my time as a councillor. The ICB’s [integrated care board] statement that the plans are on ‘indefinite pause’ does seem to signal the end of this project and I support their decision to cease any further activity, including the planned consultation that was due to start in the next few months.

"As long as we continued to plan for the hub, we were diverted away from looking at other options.

"Although we support investment in primary care buildings, we felt that the plans were on too large a scale to work well for Shrewsbury residents. We are now faced with a rushed ‘plan B’ to support the existing six surgeries, some of which face real challenges, especially with space.

"We are keen as councillors to support the ICB and primary care in their next steps, and we encourage them to involve local residents as well as Shropshire Council as much as possible in future plans. The depth of opposition from residents to the proposed health and wellbeing hub came from the value we place on our local GP surgeries and the staff who work there. The way forward will be to work together to secure the future of services."

Bowbrook councillor Alex Wagner said: “It is good to hear NHS Shropshire acknowledge that there is no point spending more and more time and money on a project that just isn’t viable.

“For many residents, the scheme posed a fundamental threat to their ability to access primary care services. In a town the size of Shrewsbury, having one hub for 40,000 plus patients was always going to be a huge logistical task - and have a major fallout.

“The one silver lining to plans was that NHS England saw there was sufficient need to spend £40-60 million on GP services in Shrewsbury.

“We now need our leaders to push them to invest in the sort of services people can access, and improve GP provision for all - not just those who can get there.”