Halt Shropshire Future Fit plans, says shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth

Jon Ashworth said the proposals, which would see all the county's emergency services moved to an expanded "super hospital" in Shrewsbury should be put on hold to allow for a fresh review of health care in Shropshire.

Hospital bosses have said the county's A&E services all need to be brought under one roof so they can recruit and retain top medical staff who are reluctant to work under the present split-site arrangement.

But Mr Ashworth said a Labour government would put an extra £37 billion into the NHS, which would make it easier to recruit staff.

"The reason we have a staffing crisis in the NHS is that we have a funding crisis in the NHS, which affects the retention and recruitment of staff.

"Putting more funding into the NHS, getting rid of the one per cent cap, bringing back training bursaries, and giving certainty to NHS workers who are European – which they don't have at the moment – would make working in the hospitals more attractive.

"We're proposing an extra £6 billion a year, that's £37 billion across the parliament, in extra funding for the NHS."

Mr Ashworth added that Labour would also spend an extra £8 billion on social care, which would relieve pressure on the health service by allowing more people to be cared for at home.

The Future Fit plan, which has yet to go out to public consultation, proposes to centralise all blue-light emergency services at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Telford's Princess Royal Hospital would instead get a 24-hour "accident and urgent care centre" which health chiefs say would be able to handle 60 per cent of the work which is at present handled by the hospital's A&E unit.

The women and children's Unit would also move from Telford to Shrewsbury, with Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust proposing to develop "centres of excellence" in weight loss and breast care services at Princess Royal.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who grew up in Pave Lane, near Newport, and went to Adams Grammar School, had previously said that Telford must retain a full accident and emergency unit.

Mr Ashworth said that the plans had been drawn up with a view to the projected population trends in the county, but to the backdrop of present funding constraints.

"I think the demographic constraints are important, I understand the thinking is that there is an increasingly elderly population in Shrewsbury, but you also have a younger, possibly more deprived population in Telford that is growing."

The Future Fit proposals are estimated to cost with in the region of £300-350 million, with the Government expected to provide between £126 million and £150 million in capital funding. David Evans, the man in charge of Future Fit, said details of how to raise the rest of the money were still being worked on.

Mr Ashworth said he was not able to comment on the specifics of whether a Labour government would make more money available to redevelop the hospitals than proposed under the Future Fit plan. But he said making more funding available for the NHS in general would relieve some of the pressures which had led to Future Fit being drawn up in the first place.

"The voice of Shrosphire will be heard by a future Labour government, and there will be substantial investment.

"That is the difference the present situation and a potential Labour government led by a son of Shropshire, Jeremy Corbyn."

The Future Fit plans have been met with a mixed reaction from MPs in the county.

They are supported by Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski and Montgomeryshire's Glyn Davies, but The Wrekin's Mark Pritchard has called for NHS leaders to tear them up and start again.

Mr Kawczynski said the plan had been drawn up to meet the demands of clinicians in the county, and going against it could result in the county missing out on up to £350 million investment.

But Mr Pritchard criticised the plans to downgrade the £28 million women and children's unit – which opened two years ago ­– as "gross folly."

"A failure to recruit enough consultants for the hospital is ultimately a failure by local health bosses who should have been far more pro-active in recruitment campaigns a very long time ago," he said.