Shropshire Star

Phil Gillam: A healthy interest in our wonderful NHS

As a 13-year-old whose chief interests were Spider-Man comics, my Triang-Hornby train set, and watching Blue Peter, Crackajack, Clapperboard, Tiswas and Captain Pugwash, I was not hugely concerned about the National Health Service.

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Even when I developed what I originally thought was just the mother of all tummy aches but was then taken to hospital by ambulance with peritonitis, I had little understanding of this tremendous organisation we call the NHS.

But in the intervening years, my deep appreciation of the NHS has grown, and - like so many others - I often consider how lucky we are to live in a country where the health of citizens is in such good hands, where the service is funded through general taxation and where healthcare is free at the point of use.

Back in 1970 I was in Copthorne Hospital (now the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital) for a full six weeks. I expect nowadays, with peritonitis, you’d be back home within days. Things have obviously moved on.

Okay, okay, I know things are not perfect ...

And, yes, of course our beloved NHS is still lurching from financial crisis to financial crisis.

But at least there was some good news on that front last week - one headline relating to £300 million of new funding for hospital services in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin; another relating to a new £1 million MRI scanner for the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, donated by the amazing League of Friends group.

I know. I know. I know. There’s still a heck of a lot that’s not right with our NHS. Of course things could be better - and should be better - and hopefully one day will be better.

But for now, let’s just take a moment to celebrate these two slices of good news.

Announced

So, the NHS Future Fit programme (tasked to improve care at local hospitals) has announced: "Half a million people living in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales are set to benefit from a capital funding injection of £300 million to transform their local hospital services.

"The money makes up the largest proportion of a £760 million investment from the Department of Health & Social Care – the single biggest capital injection of its kind in the NHS for over a decade.

"The scale of the funding means that subject to consultation, in the future local people will receive care and treatment at two vibrant hospitals in Shrewsbury and Telford. A wide range of hospital services will still be available at both existing hospital sites and importantly, stay within the county.

"In addition, the announcement is expected to have a more immediate impact, by attracting expert consultants, doctors and nurses to work for hospitals destined to undergo a transformation.

"No decisions will be made until after a formal public consultation which will ask people’s views on two options. The model has been co-designed by members of the public and over 300 clinicians, GPs and social care professionals. It will see one hospital becoming an Emergency Care site and the other a Planned Care site. This will allow specialist doctors to treat the most serious cases on the Emergency Care site, which is proven to be safer, provide better results for patients and reduce the amount of time people have to stay in hospital.”

Meanwhile, the extraordinary fund-raising efforts of the League of Friends are surely to be applauded as the group has just unveiled a £1 million MRI scanner at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Simon Wright, chief executive of The Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, said the new scanner would bring enormous benefits to patients across the region.

Mr Wright - who aided the fundraising effort himself by climbing four volcanoes in Sicily in six days, said: “We are extremely grateful to the League of Friends and all their sponsors and volunteers for providing SaTH with a new, state-of-the-art, MRI scanner.”

Excellent stuff, everybody.

Okay. Can I get back to my Spider-Man comics now?