CEO accuses Shropshire hospital trust of 'poor' planning
A health boss has criticised the trust running Shropshire's two main hospitals for 'poor' planning as the threat of a night-time A&E closure looms.
David Loughton, chief executive of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, has claimed the planned overnight closure of Princess Royal Hospital's A&E department could have been prevented.
If it does come into force next month, some patients will be forced to travel to hospitals outside the county, including New Cross in Wolverhampton.
Bosses at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs PRH, have warned a temporary closure will last at least six months or until enough staff can be recruited to run the department safely.
Mr Loughton said: "I’m certainly not happy about it [the closure], this has been coming for two years and there has been missed opportunities to address things that are now too late to do.”
He said his trust had offered SaTH the opportunity to join its clinical fellows’ programme, which would have given it access to 140 clinicians, but the offer was declined.
He added: "It will affect my [trust’s] performance.
"What makes me pretty angry is this is going to use up all of my winter capacity that should’ve been going to use for my own residents.
"My winter ward will now get consumed with this.”
SaTH said it is hoping to develop fellowship posts in early 2019, and that plans to suspend Telford’s overnight emergency service would not be finally approved until 'the board are assured that watertight plans are in place for every patient to receive the safest pathway of care'.
Dr Edwin Borman, SaTH's medical director, said: “The pathways are being worked through by our clinicians in regular conversations with neighbouring trusts and our regulators, NHS Improvement and NHS England.
"We are continuing to work with all of these organisations to ensure, that in the event of us having to suspend overnight emergency services at PRH, we are able to deliver the best outcomes for our patients and neighbouring trusts."
He said a shortage of emergency care doctors in the UK had also led to the staffing difficulties.
Dr Borman said: “One of the biggest areas we struggle to recruit into is middle grade posts.
"We did explore the link with Wolverhampton University when approached by Royal Wolverhampton Trust to develop fellowship posts as part of the solution to the recruitment of middle grade doctors.
"But at that stage we were not able to make progress.
"We have revisited this working directly with Wolverhampton University and are likely to be taking that partnership forward to offer fellowship posts early in 2019.
"They are challenging posts that test skills that are not the focus of most clinical training roles, yet are highly relevant and transferable to senior clinical roles."
SaTH has recruited three new substantive emergency consultants since the announcement that the Future Fit funding was secure.
Since the turn of the year, it has appointed 22 new consultants across all specialities, secured funding for 30 additional junior doctors over the next two years and appointed 32 newly qualified staff nurses in September.
More than 100 staff nurses have joined the trust since the beginning of the year.
