MP has 'confidence' in Future Fit

Daniel Kawczynski was speaking after Telford MPs Mark Pritchard and Lucy Allen met this week with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in an attempt to break the long-running deadlock over the future of the county's two main hospitals.

They were joined by Telford & Wrekin councillors Andrew Eade and Nigel Dugmore to voice concerns about the length of time it was taking to reach a decision.

Mr Hunt is reported to have said that he will tell NHS England that 'enough is enough' and that a swift decision needs to be taken.

But Mr Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham said he was fully confident that chief executive Simon Wright was doing all he can to move the project forward and if any blame should be found for the delay, it should be laid at the door of Telford & Wrekin Council.

He said: "If there is going to be a blame culture here we need to look at Telford Council. There has been a single body that has thrown a spoke in the wheel and tried to derail this process. And that has been Telford & Wrekin Council. It seems to operate in a silo of its own.

"Medical professionals have been looking for a way to future proof provision across the county and Mid Wales.

"I have full confidence in the chief executive of the Trust. He is, in my view, the best we have had in the 12 years I have been an MP. He is very well respected and is working hard to ensure that the money is there for this process. He would not be proceeding with this unless he had confidence that the money would be awarded to the project."

NHS England said earlier this week that it was reviewing the proposals backed by the county's two clinical commissioning groups before the plans are put out for public consultation.

The preferred option, agreed by the Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin clinical commissioning groups, is for a single A & E unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, while planned services will be centred at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital. The consultant-led women and children unit will move to Shrewsbury under the plans, although Telford would retain a midwife-led unit.

But Ms Allen and Mr Pritchard said they were told that the cost of the proposed reorganisation was "significant", and that the funding might not be available given other competing demands.

The two commissioning groups this week signed off Future Fit's "pre-consultation business case" and consultation documents, which the public will be invited to comment on.

NHS England has now been asked to validate the documents, a process expected to take about two weeks, before the public is invited to have its say from early December.