Doctor: 'It’s time to consider one brand new hospital serving all of Shropshire'

Doctor Laura Davies, who has experienced working in our county hospitals and is Labour general election candidate for Shrewsbury & Atcham, has written this open letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

"Approximately £312 million has been allocated for Future Fit from various sources involving the renovation of existing hospital buildings and rearrangement of acute and elective services.

You will by now have received the case from Telford & the Wrekin Borough Council referring the case to you, and the independent reconfiguration panel, for review.

I write to recommend that you reconsider the plan in its current incarnation and revisit the proposition of a new single site ‘super hospital’, as has been implemented successfully in other areas of the country.

The fundamental premise of the Future Fit project involves the division of secondary specialities between hospitals and separating acute and elective care.

Split-site working invariably involves duplication of services, therefore is both inherently inefficient and compromises patient safety. Frequently, critical and life-saving services may only be available at one site, and many patients will required combined treatment from multiple services at both sites making their treatment journey both hazardous and convoluted.

The status quo is unsustainable, even in the short term. There is a pressing clinical need for the consolidation of acute services, and therefore reconfiguration will have to take place whatever the long-term strategy is. This should not be undertaken in a way that disadvantages one area or community in the county.

The anticipated lifespan of a new purpose-built hospital is over 50 years. The 20-year lifespan of Future Fit means that within a relatively short period of time another similar expensive reorganisation will be needed.

Optimal

I am of the firm belief that this short-term solution is inadequate. It will fail to deliver optimal care, taxpayer value for money, or parity of provision for either major town in Shropshire.

I emphasise that the flaws in the Future Fit scheme are not the fault of those responsible for its design, who are trying to do the best they can within the set budgetary constraints. In the pre-consultation business case, a new hospital on a site between Shrewsbury and Telford was considered and then discounted on the basis of cost. It is estimated that a new aforementioned ‘super-hospital’ would cost approximately £600 million. I do not accept that underfunding of the NHS and a lack of capital investment is born of necessity.

Future Fit is borne of a lack of funds, rather than as a result of investment.

A new hospital can be purpose built around transport and other infrastructure; it can be constructed to anticipate emerging advances in digital technology with energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in mind. You are a vocal advocate of innovation, especially around digital infrastructure. Here is an opportunity for you and your government to demonstrate your commitment by embracing an ambitious vision for healthcare in Shropshire.

Dividing

The wider economic benefits of a large infrastructure project such as this are legion, generating jobs and prosperity as well as providing 21st century healthcare that the people of Shropshire deserve. A new hospital, in an equidistant location ensuring easy access for the people of Shrewsbury, Telford, the wider Shropshire area and Mid-Wales will deliver modern, effective and safe healthcare. I am convinced this is the best option for patients, the best option for staff and ultimately will provide the best value for money for the taxpayer.

Future Fit is dividing communities and regardless of which option is decided upon, one community will perceive they have ‘lost’. One new ‘super hospital’ will mean that communities can unite around a positive solution to acute healthcare and create winners – not losers.

Currently should an individual suffer a heart attack, a brain injury or major trauma they need to travel great distances out of the county to receive life saving treatment. This proposal is the only way to provide the critical mass required to bring these services to Shropshire."

Five years on, the arguments on the Future Fit review continue to rage

It took more than five years to get a decision on the future of the county’s major hospitals, and that decision is still yet to be fully confirmed, writes Dominic Robertson.

Future Fit has been a protracted process, but it is one that has huge implications for the future of the county, setting out how major hospital care will be managed for the coming decades.

In January a joint committee of healthcare officials from across the county voted to press ahead with the recommended plan. That would see Royal Shrewsbury Hospital become home to the county’s only 24 hour A&E, while Princess Royal Hospital Telford would become the centre for planned care.

Consultant-led women and children’s services would also move from the Telford hospital to Shrewsbury. Both hospitals would have urgent care centres. However, despite the decision being approved it has faced another delay, after Telford & Wrekin Council, which was opposed to the plan, wrote to the Health Secretary Matt Hancock asking him to order an independent review of the proposal.

Panel

Mr Hancock has asked an independent panel to assess the request to see if it should go to a full review. Until the process is completed then it is not possible to proceed with the proposal that was approved in January.

Now Laura Davies, a doctor who has worked at both PRH and RSH has also written to Mr Hancock, calling for the Future Fit plan to be abandoned and for one major hospital to be built to serve both towns instead.

But Shrewsbury & Atcham MP, Daniel Kawczynski, who has supported Future Fit, said millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money had already been spent on drawing up the plans and attacked her stance.

He said: “This is her idea, and it is completely implausible, it flies in the face of the work that the 300 doctors and surgeons have carried out on how to reconfigure hospital services.

“We have got two perfectly good functioning hospitals, there just needs to be a certain amount of reconfiguration to provide the optimum level of provision across both hospitals. These recommendations are not from civil servants or politicians, they are the people who are carrying out these services day in, day out. For her to take on these clinicians is a little arrogant.”