MP calls for debate on NHS in Wales and impact on Shropshire hospitals

MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham Daniel Kawcynski spoke at Westminster yesterday, asking for a discussion into the management of the NHS in Wales and highlighting the impact of failing services in Wrexham on hospitals in Shrewsbury.

Mr Kawczynski said: "Wrexham Maelor Hospital, which is just across the border from us in Shropshire, is meeting only 64 per cent of its A&E targets.

"As a result, more people are coming across the border, and from north Shropshire, to use my local hospital the Royal Shrewsbury, thus putting pressure on it.

"The Health Secretary (Jeremy Hunt), to whom I spoke earlier in the week, is being given anecdotal evidence by other English Members of Parliament on our side of the border who are also feeling the strain.

"May we have a debate on the Floor of the House about the impact that Labour's mismanagement of the NHS in Wales is having on hospitals on our side of the border?"

William Hague, Leader of the House of Commons, responded to the MP and said he too recognised the issue.

He said: "It will be important for details of that kind to be discussed when we next debate the national health service.

"As we learnt last week, satisfaction with the NHS in England has risen from 60 per cent to 65 per cent, whereas — I speak from memory — satisfaction with the NHS in Wales has fallen from 53 per cent to 51 per cent.

"The performance of the health service, in the view of the people who use it, is clearly diverging. A&E targets were last met in Wales in March 2008, and that is a record that must be borne in mind when we hear complaints from opposition members."

Earlier this week, Mr Kawcynski called for an inquiry to be opened into the impact of Wrexham Maelor Hospital's poor waiting times on the Royal Shrewsbury's accident and emergency department.

He said he had raised the issue with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt after Caron Morton, accountable officer at Shropshire Clinical Commission Group, confirmed that two Shropshire patients had been held in ambulances outside Wrexham Maelor Hospital for more than four hours before being taken back to Shrewsbury.

Mr Kawcynski said the failures in Wrexham were putting an "extra strain" on the Shrewsbury hospital.

A spokesman for Wrexham Maelor said staff were working to address waiting times and apologised to anyone who had experienced a long wait in the emergency department.