Shropshire hospital chiefs ‘impatient’ after spike in patients with no medical need to be there
A recent ‘spike’ in the number of patients who were in Shropshire’s acute hospitals with no medical reason to be there ‘negated’ the near 100 extra beds which were recently added, a meeting was told.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has written to commissioners and arranged a meeting with Shropshire Council after it saw 192 patients with no criteria to reside (NCTR) in the wards in early January 2026.
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A SaTH board meeting on Thursday (March 12) also heard of continuing 12 hour-plus waits in accident and emergency as patients wait for beds to be made available.
“We must be frank, access to urgent and emergency care is not good enough,” said Ned Hobbs, SaTH’s chief operating officer and deputy chief executive.
Mr Hobbs reported that NCTR patients have risen “in recent months” from about 110 to 150 on average.
There board was told that the subsequent stabilisation and reduction in numbers has been due to a “collective system effort, with our colleague partners demonstrating their proactivity.”
The trust has more than 800 beds following the addition of 56 in new modular wards at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and 40 at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
But the board was told that this has been ‘negated’ by the number of patients who are unnecessarily in hospital beds.
Mr Hobbs said they are working “really hard” with system partners including commissioners and local councils in a “collective effort” to get to grips with the issue. The trust is set to have meetings with “external partners”.
Andrew Morgan, the group chairman of SaTH and the community trust, said: “I am not the most patient person on earth” as he pressed Mr Hobbs for a date when improvements will be felt.
Mr Morgan said the trust has been commended in other areas and has recently celebrated coming out of ‘special measures.’
But these “scores on the doors” of patient care are “not acceptable”, he added.
Mr Hobbs said: “Your impatience is absolutely felt. We want to be delivering the best care.”
He added that the trust has been “laying the foundations”.
Mr Hobbs said improvements should be seen in “weeks and months rather than years”.
He expected work to reduce 12 hour waiting times to take the longest time to tackle. Those long waits are experienced by around 20 per cent of patients, the meeting heard.
The meeting was told that the trust normally has a high number of beds being used.
“We are running with no headroom,” Mr Hobbs said.
But Mr Hobbs said that during February the trust saw its “best ambulance handover times since last summer”
Sarah Dunnett, a non-executive director, said: “We have to have people going out the back door before we can let them in the front door.
“Until we do that we are going to struggle.”
Shropshire Council and SaTH issued a joint statement
A spokesperson said: “Shropshire Council is the largest area covered by SaTH, with the largest population, and therefore sees higher demand to support complex discharges from hospital.
“We work with our partners across the health and care system to ensure we understand demand changes and can be responsive so that people are able to receive care in the most appropriate setting for their needs.
“Our hospital discharge activity remains high in this area, but we remain committed to ensuring we have flexible solutions to support people through their hospital stay and onward discharge to community settings.”
