Future Fit: £312 million funding means go-ahead for Shropshire A&E shake-up

If approved following consultation it would mean the creation of one emergency centre covering the whole of Shropshire and parts of Mid Wales, supported by urgent care centres at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt today announced the capital investment of up to £312 million so the plans can progress to the next stage.

More than four months ago Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) signed off on the pre-consultation business case and consultation documents.

But the proposals were hit by a delay in December when NHS England wanted to know the funding was available.

Residents will now be able to have their say when a public consultation opens.

Mr Hunt said: “As the NHS approaches its 70th birthday, we are backing it with one of the largest capital programmes in NHS history.

"As well as a whole new emergency care development in Shropshire, we are backing local NHS services with new buildings, beds and wards so that staff who have been working incredibly hard over winter can have confidence we are expanding capacity for the future.

“Further major projects are also under consideration across the country and we intend to announce one large scale scheme the size of the Shrewsbury and Telford plan every year going forward based on high quality plans coming forward from local NHS leaders.”

Politicians react

Feedback will be analysed

The preferred option, which has been agreed by the CCGs, is for a single emergency unit at RSH, while planned services will be centred at PRH. The consultant-led women and children’s unit will move to Shrewsbury under the plans, although Telford would retain a midwife-led unit.

Walk-in urgent care centres would be set up at both RSH and PRH. The second option would be for PRH to house Shropshire's emergency department and for RSH to become the planned care site.

Health bosses have said that consultant-led women and children's services would have to be on the same site as the emergency department.

A public consultation is expected to last 12 weeks and any feedback will be analysed before a final decision is made.

The funding was the largest amount in a £760m allocation to the NHS across 40 NHS hospitals and community services.

Significant

Simon Stevens NHS England CEO, said: "These significant investments in local areas will turbo charge much-needed improvements for patients and the public including better A&E facilities, children and adult mental health services, diagnostics and general practice. While rightly acknowledging the NHS's past in its 70th year, it's critical to build for the future and to develop the new more joined up and interconnected services people will need."

The £760m in capital funding is the single biggest injection of its kind in the NHS in over a decade.

Ian Dalton, chief executive of NHS Improvement said: “As part of helping the NHS meet the challenge of dealing with increasing demand from an ageing population we need to ensure we’re using the money given to us in the best way possible.

"But we also must recognise that the NHS needs more money to transform it into a service fit for the future. The NHS has been a world leader in innovation over the past 70 years. Today’s announcement will mean it can continue to offer better care to patients, in state-of-the-art facilities, for years to come.”