'That decision cannot be allowed to stand': Telford MP in promise to stop Future Fit 'debacle'

Lucy Allan was returned as the MP for Telford last week with an increased majority and said there is a "huge sense of optimism" in Westminster.

She has committed to "ensuring" the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) devises an "alternative plan" to the scheme that would see Telford served by an 'A&E Local' – the definition of which is still unclear.

In a post to her website, she said: "There has been a complete refresh of the make up of Parliament and the Conservative Party has changed for the better.

"Swearing in for a third time today, I feel privileged as an established MP to be able to finish the work I started in earlier Parliaments.

"Telford cannot continue with uncertainty over the future of its hospital. The Future Fit plan was signed off in the dying days of the last Parliament when it should not have been.

"That decision cannot be allowed to stand.

"The political landscape has changed. This is a Government committed to the NHS. This is a Government committed to levelling up.

"There is no way that this new Government can, with any credibility, allow the closure of the Women and Children’s Centre and a 24-hour A&E in an area with significant pockets of deprivation, widening health inequalities, poor health outcomes and a growing population, and transfer these resources to more affluent leafy shires, where health outcomes are above the national average.

"That is not the new Conservative Party."

She continued: "No Health Secretary in this new Government would approve such a proposal. I commit myself to ensuring the local hospital trust revisits this plan and comes up with an alternative plan that serves the needs of the whole community, particularly those most in need.

"An NHS that allowed the Future Fit debacle needs radical, fundamental change.

"I will also be here to ensure Telford's child sexual exploitation inquiry goes ahead and is not kicked into the long grass because those in authority would rather it did not happen.

"There is much work to be done. But I feel confident that the experience I have gained over the years, both outside and in Parliament, and the strong mandate I now have to represent Telford with 60 per cent of the vote, I will be able to achieve a great deal for our town and that is what I intend to do."