Shrewsbury health hub proposal has 'caused upset' over travel and contact worries

The Shrewsbury Health and Wellbeing Hub would see six doctors' surgeries amalgamated into a large new building, expected to be in Meole Brace.

However the plans, which would affect 45,000 patients, have raised serious concerns.

NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin leaders Emma Pyrah and Tracey Jones spoke at Shropshire Council's Health and Adult Social Care scrutiny committee about feedback from a recent listening exercise - a series of six focus groups.

They accepted that travelling further and not keeping contact with the same GP were among the main concerns.

Belle Vue councillor Kate Halliday said her constituents had been worrying about those problems, as well as environmental damage, and asked if any other options were being looked at.

"There are two GP surgeries affected in my area which would move to the hub," she said. "It has created real upset for people, who are worrying about travel and regular contact with their GP.

"What this feels like is that NHS England has come along and said 'oh, there's a pot of money here', and people have been excited.

"I'm not against investment in Shrewsbury, I'm all for it. But there are a number of really big issues with this."

Councillor Halliday said she had been seeking answers on Shropshire Council potentially funding new bus routes for the hub, which she expects would be an expensive move.

"That is a massive cost," she said. "I'm sure there are many people sitting in this room who would like their residents to have better bus routes."

She added: "It clashes head-on with the council's desires to look at the climate emergency, reducing travel. This is going to be thousands of extra car journeys and bus journeys on our roads.

"As I understand it, the advantage of this is to get a large, new building. So there's not going to be an investment into the primary care work force.

"We are being asked to take part in a massive experiment. We don't know whether this is going to work. It's going to be an enormous building. There doesn't appear to be a Plan B.

"Have you looked at any other ways?"

Meole councillor Bernie Bentick asked when an exact location for the proposal would be confirmed.

The NHS leaders said that it is their intention to collect a number of options from the public, including rebuilding current surgeries. However, those options would then be put through "essential and desirable" criteria scrutiny, to see which option would work best.

They also said an exact location should be confirmed in the next month or so.

Health bosses have previously said the move would represent a "significant investment" in healthcare in the town.