David Cameron told act now on Shropshire's A&E crisis

Senior councillors in Telford will put forward a motion at a meeting tomorrow night urging the PM to intervene.

It comes as a report from Government watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published this week said the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust needed to improve in four out of five key areas. It has also been given a "requires improvement" rating overall.

People have overwhelmingly voted in favour of a shake-up of health services in Shropshire in light of a report which said the county's two main hospitals needed to improve.

An online poll on shropshirestar.com website asked people if change was needed. A total of 85 per cent voted yes with just 15 per cent saying no.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust – which runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal – was given an overall "requires improvement" rating by the watchdog Care Quality Commission (CQC) in an inspection report published this week.

Despite the report, staff working at the hospitals continued to be praised today, with people instead calling for structural changes to help them.

David Sandbach, former chief executive of Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, said: "I am delighted that with all the pressure on the hospitals the staff have been rated good for their caring attitude to patients.

"All things considered this is a really good achievement and I am very proud of them all.

"The hospital runs at 96 per cent bed occupancy and I am certain in my own mind that this 'over heating' has a lot to do with the areas where the CQC say there needs to be improvement.

"I think what the trust needs to do is spend more time on making sure that there is more consistency of performance between different wards in the hospitals. Last year I chose the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital surgical service to perform an operation for me and I would do so again if I needed to."

People also took to the Shropshire Star's Facebook page to praise the service they received during recent hospital visits.

Angela Harris said: "Last week I had a major operation at the new women's services unit at the Princess Royal Hospital and the quality of care could not have been better, from the consultants down. The food was great too. Thank you."

Martin James, also commenting on Facebook, added: "Given the stealth cuts to NHS funding by this Government and it's programme of privatisation it is no surprise that the two hospitals are having some problems. On the positive side, the way my wife was treated in A&E at the Princess Royal Hospital before Christmas was first class, both from A&E staff and West Midlands Ambulance staff."

People working at the Royal Shrewsbury site also received praise on the social networking site from Michelle Cooke, who said: "I've had a few stays in hospital at Royal Shrewsbury with my children and have to say the care we've received has been great.

"The staff have always been so friendly. The staff work long shifts I take my hat off to them."

Leaders behind the Future Fit programme are currently drawing up a shortlist of proposals which will see a shake-up of health services in Shropshire in a bid to tackle the problems.

It is likely to see a single A&E centre, either at Princess Royal, Royal Shrewsbury or on a new purpose-built site

The report has been published following a three-day inspection of the two sites back in October last year.

The CQC team was asked to rank the hospitals based on whether the services they provided were safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

Only the caring element received a "good" rating, with staff at the two hospitals praised throughout the report for the "caring and compassionate" way they dealt with patients.

Now the local authority is calling on Downing Street to help ease the pressure on beleaguered staff at the Princess Royal site.

Telford & Wrekin Council's Labour leader Kuldip Sahota will put forward the motion at the meeting of the full council, due to be held at The Place in Oakengates, before it is fully debated by members.

Overloading

Suggested measures to improve matters include getting nurses and trained medical staff to answer non-emergency 111 calls, doing a u-turn on plans to close walk-in centres and trying to recruit former nurses back into the NHS.

Last week the country's leading emergency doctor, Cliff Mann, said it was unfair to blame the public for overloading A&E when untrained medical staff manning the 111 helplines were sending them there.

Mr Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, said risk-averse computer programmes used by medically unqualified call handlers on the 111 line was one of the main reasons for rising patient numbers.

The full Labour motion reads: "The council sincerely thanks the hard work of doctors, nurses, paramedics, health care assistants and all support staff at A&E at the Princess Royal Hospital who are having to deal with the ongoing crisis caused by the Government's £3bn top down re-organisation.

"Government cuts to local government, together with slashing preventative funding, clearly demonstrates the need for Telford Princess Royal Hospital to remain a full 24 hours, seven day a week A&E department.

"The council therefore calls on David Cameron to take action to ease pressure on A&E by helping families to see a GP, getting more nurses answering calls to NHS 111, halting the closures of walk-in centres and recruiting former nurses back into the NHS to help deal with staffing pressures."

Richard Caddy, spokesman for Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "We all wish to see the best possible level of emergency and urgent care provision for Telford and Wrekin patients, which is the current focus of the NHS Future Fit programme.

"Future Fit is currently examining a long-list of options which will shortly be reduced to a short-list.

"When the short-list is approved there will be extensive consultation. We will also continue to work closely with Telford and Wrekin Council as Future Fit progresses."

Sarah Bloomfield, director of nursing and quality for the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said she was pleased the efforts and passion of staff had been recognised in the CQC report.

She said action had already been taken in several areas to act upon the findings detailed in the report.

She said: "The staffing levels have been reviewed since the CQC report.

"And the CQC has noted that, but we have still got problems recruiting and that is something which is of course some of the problem."

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust currently employs just over 700 staff nurses at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.

It revealed last year that it was attempting to recruit in Portugal and Spain as part of steps to bring in new staff.

In one month alone, almost £750,000 was spent to hire agency nurses to fill the gaps at the two sites.

NHS watchdog Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin has organised a couple of events this week to encourage people to come along and have their say about hospital services locally in light of the report.

Healthwatch staff and volunteers will be at the Friends Cafe at Princess Royal Hospital from 10am to 2pm tomorrow and Friday for anyone who wants to go along.

If people cannot attend, they can still make their opinions heard by logging onto www.healthwatchtelfordandwrekin.org.uk/content/speak-out or by writing to the freepost address Meeting Point House, Southwater Square, Telford TF3 4HS.