Telford A&E night closure vote: MPs urged to demand rescue plan
MPs must demand and secure an urgent rescue plan to prevent a night-time closure of A&E in Telford, the town's council leader has said.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) board will meet tomorrow to decide whether to approve an overnight closure of A&E at Princess Royal Hospital between 8pm and 8am.
Health bosses say it is because of shortages in consultants and middle-grade doctors, as well as nursing vacancies proving a concern.
Telford & Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies claims that approving an overnight closure would be a betrayal of local people and hard working staff.
He said: "Our MPs must now demand and secure an urgent rescue plan to prevent this closure.
"This overnight closure will have significant issues and impact right across Shropshire because you are only going to have one A&E for the whole of Shropshire.
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"If you are a child in Telford you will be transported to Wolverhampton for care and then transported back to Telford or Shrewsbury to be treated.
"Wherever you live in Shropshire, it's bad news."
He says an overnight closure of emergency services would be avoidable if the trust is supported with a rescue plan and doctors and consultants can be secured on a short-term basis.
Councillor Davies, who says he has been lobbying the Department for Health for additional resources, said: "We know across the NHS things are tight but we do know there are other trusts who do have capacity in middle grade doctors and consultants, or consultants who can act down as middle grade doctors.
"It is not sustainable to have an emergency closure.
"This should be a national priority for the Government because there's so many issues at this trust that only a national response can do."
It comes as Telford's MP Lucy Allan has written to the trust's chief executive, Simon Wright, saying she wants an "urgent summit" to ensure the trust can "fully hear" concerns.
She said: “These decisions are being taking without any discussion with elected representatives.
"We represent the people in Telford who will be affected by these changes.
"The trust management is not communicating with us, even on a basic level.
"They are not telling us what is happening and not listening to what we have to say on behalf of our constituents.
"At the same time, they are making vital decisions that will affect our community and affect Telford’s future. This is wholly unacceptable.
“This is our hospital – it belongs to the people of Telford. As elected representatives, we should be consulted and given the opportunity to speak up for our constituents.
"Instead SaTH management seem to think we are an irrelevance, which shows huge disrespect to the people whom we serve.
'Work together'
“I have convened an urgent summit of all the elected representatives in Telford to ensure SaTH management can fully hear our concerns.
"As representatives, we must work together to ensure Telford’s voice is heard.”
Ms Allan and Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, have both said Councillor Davies needs to work with them.
Ms Allan said: “For too long Telford’s council leader has been shouting at his political opponents on this issue, achieving nothing at all.
"Instead he needs to join us and work as a team to put Telford’s case."
Mr Pritchard added: "He should join me and Conservatives councillors in fighting to stop this deeply flawed decision.
"At a time of unprecedented demand for A&E services, this decision will be seen, by many, as a reckless decision."
Responding to the recommendation to close Telford's A&E overnight, Gill George, chairwoman of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Defend Our NHS, said: "There is a conspicuous lack of content here; many unanswered questions about patient safety."
The trust says any overnight suspension of A&E services will be kept under review.
Dr Kevin Eardley, consultant renal physician and medical director for unscheduled care at SaTH, said: “We will be taking all steps possible to ensure that our plan minimises the impact of additional travel for patients, but we have to put patient safety first.
“The proposal will clearly have an impact on other services – including women and children’s services, stroke services, critical care and head and neck services – but our plans have been created and tested to ensure the impact on our patients is kept to the absolute minimum.
“This is not something we ever wanted to implement, however, the care of our patients must come before every other consideration, and we cannot continue to look after our population safely, kindly and with the dignity they deserve with our current staffing levels and the demand we face every day.”
