My life depends on hospital service staying in Shrewsbury
The fate of a Shropshire teenager rests on the decision to keep children's services at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, his mother has claimed.
The fate of a Shropshire teenager rests on the decision to keep children's services at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, his mother has claimed.
Hayley Corfield, of Harlescott, Shrewsbury, has been left "shaking" with fear over the prospect of facilities being moved to Telford's Princess Royal Hospital. She believes her son Joshua, 14, will die if he needs emergency treatment if children's services are concentrated at the PRH.
Joshua suffers from chronic lung disease and visits the children's ward at the RSH for treatment once every two weeks.
Mrs Corfield has now started her own petition as part of a personal battle to overturn the planned NHS shake-up — and secured almost 50 signatures within the first few hours.
She said: "Joshua is at the hospital once a fortnight for steroid injections and he stays over once every eight weeks. He has 24-hour open access. But if the services are moved to Telford and he has a sudden attack he will die because of the distance we will have to travel.
"I keep shaking when I think about it and I have started a petition of my own because I had to do something to fight against the plans. It's my way of showing what it means to me."
Mrs Corfield started the petition yesterday handing signature sheets out around her work at Salon Services in Castle Foregate, where she is the store manager. The petition gained close to 50 signatures within hours of being launched.
Under the proposals women's and children's services would be concentrated at Telford Princess Royal Hospital with acute inpatient abdominal surgery at Shrewsbury.
Martyn and Alison Davies-Friend, of Battlefield, Shrewsbury, are behind a Facebook campaign and have gathered thousands of signatures though an online petition, and a major public protest is also planned next week.
Prime Minister David Cameron pledged earlier this week that changes to the Shropshire hospitals would only go ahead with the support of the whole community.
He promised that everybody in the county would be consulted before any decisions were made.
Mrs Corfield added: "The plans to move children's services from Shrewsbury would be fatal for children like Joshua.
"The Rainbow ward was built because of the hard work of fundraisers. This cannot be taken away from us."
She added: "I have been handing the petition to everyone who has been coming into the store and the other girls have also been getting their customers to sign it.
"It will help to supplement the other online petition and I'm hoping to get hundreds of people to sign it."
A mass rally is being planned to fight plans to downgrade services at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on February 11. The protest will be held before a crunch meeting at Shrewsbury Town's Greenhous Meadow Stadium.
By Sam Pinnington