Future Fit: Health Q&A provided ‘little reassurance’
The chairman of Wrekin Labour Party says the responses he received to 20 questions surrounding the controversial Future Fit proposals have provided “very little reassurance”.
Former Wrekin MP Peter Bradley wrote a letter to Dr Simon Freeman, accountable officer at Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), and David Evans, chief officer at Telford & Wrekin CCG, about a month ago.
On behalf of the Labour parties across Shropshire and Montgomeryshire, he called on them to provide answers to questions surrounding plans for the future of the county’s hospital services.
The questions and the replies were published by the Shropshire Star on Saturday.
Under the Future Fit plans, a single emergency centre for the county would be based at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital, with the alternative site taking on responsibility for planned care. The questions focussed on urgent care centres which would be set up at both hospitals.
Others centred on resources for ambulance services, financing arrangements for the scheme and on NHS staff.
A 14-week public consultation, giving people the chance to comment on the proposals, is currently under way.
Mr Bradley has accused the CCGs of not giving “straightforward” answers to most of the questions and has complained about how long it has taken to get a response.
He said: “It’s astonishing that it’s taken the CCGs a month to draft a letter which manages to be so heavy on jargon about ‘system transformation’ and so light on information about healthcare.
“It adds very little to what we already know and leaves so many important questions unanswered. We should not have had to ask our 20 questions in the first place.”
“We’re already almost halfway through the public consultation and the basic information we sought should have been available to the public from the day it was launched back in May.
Future Fit:
“Even now we’re no wiser. Of the 20 straightforward questions we put to the CCGs, they’ve managed to provide a straightforward answer to just one.
“Much of the information they do provide is frankly misleading, for example about the loss of nurses and other staff if Future Fit goes ahead.
“It’s also deeply worrying to read in answer after evasive answer that analysis, modelling, negotiations and discussions are still under way to establish facts and figures which should have been clear and made available to the public from the start of the consultation.
“The CCGs are taking us all on a journey into the unknown and the destination becomes less clear and the way forward more uncertain and potentially more hazardous with every step we’re asked to take.
“To those of us who love the NHS but have serious concerns about Future Fit, this long-awaited letter provides very little reassurance.”
For more information about the proposals and ways to take part in the public consultation visit nhsfuturefit.org
