Future Fit: Decision on future of Shropshire A&E services due by February
The future of Shropshire’s A&E departments will be made early next year.
Health commissioners say they hope to make a decision on Future Fit by February.
David Evans, chief officer of Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group, said more than 16,000 surveys had been filled out by people giving feedback on the proposals.
He said it accounted for about three per cent of the population served by Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital. The public consultation closed at midnight on Tuesday.
Mr Evans said it is expected to take six to eight weeks for the responses to be analysed and it is hoped a decision can be reached by February next year.
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Speaking about the response to the consultation, Dr Julian Povey, clinical chairman for Shropshire CCG, said: “That is very good. There have 11 events over 11 weeks and the feedback has and it has been very positive.
“There’s been 8,570 paper replies and 7,664 online so far.
“The experts who know about these things say that usually 80 per cent of replies will be made online, but in this case its been 40 per cent.
“The responses will be analysed over a two-month period so we’re not looking for anything to come back in any great detail for a while.”
The proposals aim to shake-up hospital services in the county and will see emergency and planned care separated if given the final nod by health bosses.
Today’s revelation comes as problems continue to beset Shropshire’s hospitals. Care Quality Commission inspectors continue to monitor problems in A&E departments.
And CCG members have also said they want to ‘understand the full risks’ behind any overnight closure of an A&E in the county before a decision is made.
Future Fit facts
Future Fit was the name given to the project to review the future of health services in the county and the hospital services provided at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital.
The project, which launched more than four years ago, has been led by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups – the organisations that commission health services.
Initially, health bosses say they considered dozens of options on how to transform services for the future.
Doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff developed a proposed new model of care – for one hospital to become an emergency care site and the other hospital to be responsible for planned care.
Under these proposals, 24-hour urgent care centres would be set up at both RSH and PRH.
Consultant-led women and children’s services would be on the same site as the emergency department, but there would be a range of women and children’s services available on the other site.
Commissioners are required by law to involve the public when considering making significant changes to NHS healthcare.
For more than three months people have been giving their feedback on the plans during a public consultation.
The project is expected to cost up to £312 million to deliver.
What now?
All feedback will be collated and analysed by an independent company.
They will then produce a report which will be considered by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin CCGs.
The CCGs will also look at how travel and transport will affect the options, including ambulance travel times.
The boards of the two CCGs will consider all of the evidence and a joint committee of Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin CCGs will be convened to make the final decision.
It will take about five years before any changes are fully implemented.
