Future Fit: Health boss's praise over ‘brave’ call
Officials behind plans for Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to house Shropshire's only A&E have praised the bravery of their Telford colleagues in backing the plans in the face of vocal political campaigns.
The comments came as the people of Shrewsbury were given the first opportunity to comment on the Future Fit plans, at a consultation event held at Shrewsbury Town Football Club yesterday.
The preferred option being put to the public is that Royal Shrewsbury Hospital would become home to Shropshire's only emergency centre, along with women and children's services.
Princess Royal Hospital Telford would become the centre for planned care and operations, with both hospitals having urgent care centres.
The preferred option has been given the backing of both Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin CCGs.
Julian Povey, chairman of the Shropshire group, said it had taken courage for Telford's CCG members to back the plans in the face of considerable political criticism.
He said: "It was brave of Telford & Wrekin because there is a lot of politics and public noise about it.
"Like most things in life there is a small vocal group that opposes it.
"There are people that oppose it because they want the emergency centre in Telford and people that oppose it because they do not want any of it."
He added: "It is brave and it is difficult for them given the challenges of the political context but we have to do what is best for the population of Shropshire."
Simon Wright, the chief executive of Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: "I think for them what it showed is they are representing the population's need and that is very brave to do because often what people what and they need are two different things."
Simon Freeman, accountable officer for Shropshire CCG said the decision about the preferred option was ultimately about the time it takes to travel to an emergency centre.
He said: "The overriding feature in the choice of the preferred option is really about travel times which are really important in emergency situations so if you choose option two there are some really long travel times from Powys and North Shropshire that you do not have with option one."
Mr Freeman said that the consultation responses will not be counted up and treated as a vote on which option to choose.
He said: "It is not a referendum. What we are really looking for is feedback on the model of care. Are there things we have not considered, are there other factors that might play into it?
Mr Povey also said that a firm would be analysing the responses filled out at the consultation events, and that they would be assessed to check if they had been formulated by lobbying groups.
He said that the responses will be analysed to check if they have the same wording.
