Town council motion urges re-think over Future Fit hospital shake-up plans
A town council is being urged to join calls for the controversial planned overhaul of the county’s two main hospitals to be re-thought.
Shrewsbury Town Council members will be asked next Monday to back a motion urging health bosses responsible for the £312 million ‘Future Fit’ hospital transformation programme to retain two full accident and emergency departments.
The planned closure of Telford’s A&E, along with the relocation of consultant-led women and children’s services to Shrewsbury, was signed off in 2019 by then health secretary Matt Hancock, and the Government confirmed in a letter to Telford & Wrekin Council last month that the plans “have not changed”.
If the programme goes ahead, the A&E at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital will be downgraded to an ‘A&E Local’, with the hospital instead focussing on planned care.
Green Party councillor Chris Lemon, who has put forward the motion, said he believes the data supporting the business case was now too old to be relied upon.
The Radbrook councillor also urged local health leaders to take stock of the weight of public concern over the proposals – which will make Telford the biggest town in the UK without a full A&E department.
Councillor Lemon’s motion reads: “Shrewsbury Town Council recognises the strength of public opinion in favour of retaining fully functioning accident and emergency departments at both the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
“The council notes that the data used to inform the decision to close one of the county’s A&E departments is now nearly 10 years old.
“It calls on NHS Shropshire Telford and Wrekin, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit, and NHS England – Midlands to commit to re-considering the Future Fit/Hospitals Transformation Programme which prescribed a single fully functioning A&E department in Shropshire, in the light of these public concerns.”
The motion will be put to the council at a meeting at Shirehall on Monday evening.
It comes after similar motions to Telford & Wrekin Council and Oswestry Town Council were supported by councillors earlier this year.
