Crunch talks over the future of Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital were being held this week, re-igniting fears of a downgrade in services.
Crunch talks over the future of Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital were being held this week, re-igniting fears of a downgrade in services.
Health bosses are currently preparing an interim report, following a series of talks, which will be considered at meetings of the Boards of Telford and Wrekin PCT and Shropshire County PCT on May 13.
Trust bosses say the report - which is rumoured to have “serious implications” for children’s and A&E services - follows work led by senior doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals, working with partners from local authorities and communities.
Plans to downgrade night time children’s services at the PRH - and to treat all Shropshire’s urology patients at Telford - were thrown out last July following a storm of public protest, but Shropshire health chiefs warned then that future changes could not be ruled out.
This current round of talks has once again sparked rumours that services at Telford’s hospital are not safe.
Wrekin MP, Mark Pritchard, who has led a five year fight to keep local health services in Telford said: “If the reports are true, all previous assurances by health bosses have proved meaningless and people will be right to feel angry.”
He added: “The secrecy of these talks is very suspicious and does not inspire the confidence of the local community or hardworking local health staff. I will fight any downgrading of paediatrics and children’s services which would also lead to a downgrading of accident and emergency cover.”
Pat Smart, chairman of Hadley & Leegomery Parish Councµil said: “Although much is said about consultation with the public, and we have now been encouraged to sign up, I believe that decisions will still be taken in spite of our needs and expectations, not because of them. The staff must be demoralised by the constant threat to their status, but they should be assured of our suppoµrt and gratitude. Let’s hope the current rumour is more speculation than threat.”
Adrian Osborne, Trust spokesman, assured plans for the next five years included continuing to provide children’s and A&E services at the Princess Royal.
“We are aiming to ensure that our local health services are fit to meet the challenges facing the NHS - such as meeting the needs of the growing number of older people and of people with long term conditions.
“We need to get the right balance between providing services close to home for most of the care that people need, while making sure we provide the best possible specialist and acute services for critically ill people. Our plans for the next five years include continuing to provide care for sick children, and accident and emergency services, at the Princess Royal Hospital and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
“Then we need to ensure we have the right concentration of specialist skills and equipment to care for the most critically ill patients. We think there are several scenarios for how future health services might develop to achieve this. These are at an early stage of development and we are asking for people’s help and input to understand the pros and cons and also whether we are looking at all the possible scenarios.
“We will be working with people across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin to produce a strategy for local health services by October 2008. Our aim is to jointly come to the right decisions about future health services, which make sense both clinically and to the communities we serve.”
