Letter: Effects of a 'Super A&E'
The data is coming in about the effects of cutting A&E facilities in regions where one hospital gets a "Super A&E" expansion at the expense of a nearby hospital.
Professor Peter Tyrer, from Imperial College London, researched the consequences of 14 such consolidations and found that there were 50 additional deaths resulting from the closures. In addition to these unnecessary fatalities these statistics imply hundreds of patients having worse outcomes as a consequence of cuts in A&E provision.
Two of the contributory reasons will be the extra journey times to the hospital (which can be up to an hour in our region) and the extra strains it puts on the hospital that retains its A&E which has doubled the number of patients it has to deal with but with only a fraction of new investment to expand capacity.
So when our Telford & Wrekin councillor Shaun Davies proclaims he is proud to spend £100,000 of our taxes fighting for the A&E to be saved in Telford he doesn't understand (even though he's been told) that these cuts will affect everyone in Powys, Shropshire and Telford and not campaigning against all closures will do considerable harm to his constituents, even if he doesn't care about the others.
Councillor Pat McCarthy, Wellington
