Say no to both options campaigners say
Defend our NHS campaigners say money earmarked for a new emergency unit for Shropshire should instead go to improving the health services in communities.
Gill George told a public meeting in Oswestry that shiny new glass and steel palaces was not the best use of resources. She said a fraction of the £312 million set aside for the changes to emergency care would make a fundamental difference.
In a critical speech against the Future Fit proposals, with plans for one emergency centre and two urgent care centres replacing the current A&E departments, she said: "It is a ramshackle set of proposals rewritten so many times. Future Fit is now basically about cuts."
She said there was a critical co-dependancy between Future Fit and community care.
Sylvia Davies, also from Shropshire Defend our NHS, said: "We need good really good structural care in the community. But what has happened is that the community hospitals have been run down and beds on wards have been cut."
"If the community hospitals were used to capacity unit costs would come down and they would be affordable. We need to look at ways of looking after elderly people in or near their own homes.
"Some of this capital spending could be put into community hospitals, care homes and domiciliary care. Instead what we are getting is an extremely expensive waste of money."
The Defend our NHS campaign is urging people to fill in the consultation forms but not in favour of either option.
"What we are asking people to do is to strongly disagree to option one on the official form, then turn over the page and strongly disagree to option two as well."
Dr Simon Freeman for Shropshire CCG said that the consultation was not a popularity vote and that all consultation papers would be taken into consideration before a final decision.
