County's £312m hospitals revamp finally approved, MP reveals
The £312m revamp of the county's hospitals has been formally approved in one of the government's final acts before the election, an MP has revealed.
The long-awaited 'Future Fit' Hospitals Transformation Programme – for Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and Princess Royal Hospital Telford (PRH) – was officially signed off by the Treasury and the Department of Health earlier this week, according to Ludlow's outgoing Conservative MP, Philip Dunne.
The approval means Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) can now go ahead with the revamp of RSH and PRH, in a project that has been 11 years in the making.
The move has been welcomed by Mr Dunne, who is stepping down at the election after 19 years in parliament – which included a role as a health minister.
The proposals will see RSH become the county's only 24-hour full A&E, through a new purpose-built 'emergency centre', as well as the base for consultant-led women and children's services, which move across from PRH.
PRH in turn becomes the centre of planned care and operations, with both hospitals having 24/7 urgent care centres.
