Star comment: Another blow for Future Fit
If the Future Fit process was a building, it would be one of Shropshire’s problem buildings on the At Risk register.
People would glance at the creaking structure from time to time and not be able to discern any developments.
They would ask: What is going to happen to it? They might start taking bets on when and if it might be finished at last – or when and if it all collapses in a heap, brought down by fatigue and dwindling interest.
Given the history of the process, nobody is going to be much surprised that the consultation on the future of accident and emergency services in Shropshire has been delayed. NHS England has looked at Future Fit and is asking where the money is coming from for the various changes.
And so Future Fit has been bumped into another year and for all anybody knows, at this time next year it might be about to drag in to yet another year.
It is difficult to imagine that there is much left to be said about Future Fit that has not already been said, or that those who are fighting their corners will stop fighting them.
What could start to drive things now is events – events which change the context and force the decision-making process.
One event already has been the recent snowfall which has damaged the roof of the midwife-led unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, closing it to births. With Shropshire’s rural maternity units already shut due to staff shortages, it means that currently expectant mothers have to travel to the Princess Royal Hospital at Telford, or give birth at home. These are the only local options.
And this week, proposals which would see the creation of ‘maternity hubs’ across the county – they are controversial because campaigners want the rural units to remain as midwife-led units – have moved a step closer.
The winter is going to bring crushing workloads to Shropshire’s hospitals and their accident and emergency units, one of which, as Salopians who have followed the Future Fit saga will know, is proposed for closure.
Going back to our original analogy, even if and when this problem building gets ‘planning permission’, that is not going to be the end of the matter.
Meanwhile, nurses and other NHS staff have just been getting on with it.
The lack of an agreed and decided strategic direction does not stop the medical heroes in the front line from doing their job. They are keeping things going, and as the arguments rage elsewhere, we thank them.
