Close one A&E now, says former Telford hospital chief
Health bosses should temporarily close an A&E in Shropshire because of staff shortages, it has been claimed.
David Sandbach, former chief executive of the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, voiced his concerns at the latest hospital board meeting in Welshpool.
He told members of the board he recommended them to follow what Chorley Hospital in Lancashire did by downgrading its A&E to an urgent care service.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr Sandbach said: "I would love you to do a Chorley and close an A&E just like that due to staff shortages.
"The A&E department at Chorley only has eight consultants available – six below its complement of 14 and as a result of this shortfall the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS trust board felt that it could not provide a safe service with this number of staff.
"As you well know SaTH has five or six consultants covering two sites in Shrewsbury and Telford.
"This situation suggests to me that your board's appetite for clinical risk is exceptionally high. Certainly higher than the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
"You are putting my family and I at risk.
"Staff are drained and something needs to be done quickly."
Following the meeting, Mr Sandbach wrote a letter to board members urging them to designate Telford's Princess Royal Hospital as the interim emergency hospital.
In the letter he states: "You will also wish to hear about the up-coming closure of the paediatric unit at the Alexandra Hospital on the basis of 'a shortage of doctors and the issue of patient safety'.
"Clearly the people associated with this decision are prepared to make themselves very unpopular with local residents in the interest of patient safety.
"Your board wants your services to be the safest and kindest in the whole of the UK. Unfortunately I do not think your A&E services or emergency medical services are as safe as they should or could be.
"I think citizens of Shropshire have reasonable grounds to be concerned about the safety of your A&E services and your general medical in-patient services.
"You will know that in the last two years SaTH has lost three cardiologists, one respiratory physician, three acute physicians, one renal physician and one stroke physician.
"Your board clearly has a retention problem as well as a recruitment problem.
"Your board has it within your power to rectify this dreadful situation by using temporary emergency measures just as other trusts have had to do.
"Please do so and quickly."
