Future Fit: Hundreds sign petition over cuts to Shropshire NHS services

Events were held in Shrewsbury and Wellington over the weekend, and hundreds of people signed a petition against nationwide NHS cuts.

A protest coordinated by Shropshire Defend our NHS took place at the bottom of Pride Hill in Shrewsbury.

It was held to show the strength of feeling against the Future Fit programme, which could see one of the county's two accident and emergency centres closed.

Meanwhile, activists belonging to Wrekin Labour Party took to the streets of Wellington in an attempt to raise awareness of issues facing the NHS and the impact these could have on services locally.

The group of about seven volunteers collected 400 signatures in the space of two hours for their petition for increased funding for the NHS nationwide. It comes amid fears the A&E unit at either Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or Telford's Princess Royal Hospital could close under the Future Fit proposals.

One of the hospitals would run the single A&E unit for Shropshire and Mid Wales while the other would be the base for planned surgery.

If A&E is based at RSH, it could lead to the closure of the £30 million Women and Children's Centre at PRH and see services moved to Shrewsbury. A decision is unlikely to be made until May next year.

Jamil El-Khalil, one of the organisers of the Wellington event, said: "People were very interested in the issues facing the NHS. They are very concerned about their A&E department and the Women and Children's Centre closing and moving to Shrewsbury.

"It affects their lives and they were happy to come over to us and talk about their concerns."We spoke to them about how Government funding cuts were affecting things on a local level."

On October 5, the programme board had been due to make a decision on its preferred option for the future of hospital services, but that was delayed for a month after Future Fit officials blamed a legal challenge by Telford & Wrekin Council.

The council threatened a judicial review after leaked documents revealed that it could mean the closure of A&E at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital and the transfer of services from its two-year-old £28 million Women and Children's Centre to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

No announcement has yet been made and now officials admit the real reason for the hold-up is because they need NHS "feedback" before a decision is made.

It has also been revealed that there is no Plan B to the Future Fit review if NHS England says it will not fund the proposals.

It is now rumoured that they could proceed with plans for public consultation without selecting their own preferred option. NHS England feedback is needed by today to allow the process to move forward.

After that date, rules involving the forthcoming Shropshire Council elections mean a decision could be delayed until after May 2017, as public consultation needs to run for 12 weeks and cannot interfere with the local authority elections.

In a bid to beat that issue, the consultation could go ahead as scheduled in January, but without the programme board making their own recommendations.