Telford and Wrekin Council calls for pause on Future Fit
The leader of Telford & Wrekin Council believes the findings of the Future Fit consultation should make health bosses pause and consider their options.
The public consultation ran for 15 weeks from May to September and a report by Participate Ltd, which reviewed the feedback, said nearly two-thirds of those who filled in surveys did not support option one.
Option one – the preferred option of health commissioners – suggests a single emergency centre for the county should be based at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, with Telford's Princess Royal Hospital taking on responsibility for planned care.
The alternative option under the plans is for the emergency centre to be based at PRH and for RSH to be the planned care site.
Council leader Shaun Davies says the results of the consultation have thrown further doubt on Future Fit.
He said: “The response from the public is very loud and clear – Future Fit cannot and must not just dismiss and ignore this, which sadly I fear they will.
"This is the biggest decision for the future of health care in the region for a generation.
“The fundamental principle of Future Fit was that no change was not option, that the model had to be clinically-led but that the clinical commissioning groups need to understand the impact on the public before finalising the preferred option.
“Two thirds disagreed with option one because of the impact – this can’t be ignored.
“A consultation should be about listening and adapting proposals, not a tickbox exercise to allow you to press ahead regardless.
“It begs the question what is the point of a very costly consultation if you ignore its findings because you don’t like the answer.
“The consultation shows that people, wherever they are from, are overwhelmingly united against Future Fit’s preferred option because, to most right minded people, it makes no sense. This can’t be dismissed as an inconvenient truth.”
More than 18,000 people filled out surveys.
Just over half were from the Telford and Wrekin area.
Independent consultation specialist, Participate Ltd, was commissioned by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups to analyse feedback from the public consultation.
The report will be considered alongside other documents and a final decision on the proposals is expected to be made early next year.
