Council leader calls for £1bn Shropshire 'super-hospital'
A single £1 billion super hospital should be built for Shropshire, and politicians from all parties should come together to make it happen - that is the view of a council leader.
The suggestion has come from Councillor Shaun Davies, who heads Telford & Wrekin Council’s Labour administration.
Councillor Davies accused Shrewsbury & Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski of “looking for the battle” rather than a solution.
Mr Kawczynsk has called on the 'Future Fit' hospital reorganisation to go ahead. That would involve moving emergency medicine to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, with Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital focussing on planned care and seeing its consultant-led Women’s and Children’s Unit repurposed.
Councillor Davies said it was time to look at an alternative plan.
He said he has written to the county’s MPs and Shropshire Council leader Lezley Picton – all Conservatives – asking them “to join me in a round-table meeting to put forward a proposal”.
Mr Kawczynski has submitted written questions to Health Secretary Sajid Javid MP, asking when the first phase of funding will be released and what the likely timetable is for consideration of the business case.
He also asked whether the clinical impact of delays in the delivery of the project had been assessed.
Mr Kawczynski has repeatedly argued that delays could put lives at risk.
Councillor Davies hit out at the “ongoing criticism” and the MP’s “perception that we are blocking” the programme, now known formally as the Hospital Transformation Programme.
“We will not apologise for being on Telford & Wrekin residents’ side,” he said.
"It doesn’t make sense for Telford to be the largest town in the whole country without a fully-functioning A&E and it doesn’t make sense to close the Women’s and Children’s Unit which is located in this town based on clinical need and demand.
“Despite what the MP for Shrewsbury says, this isn’t about a battle between Telford and Shrewsbury. It’s actually much wider than that. It’s about Telford & Wrekin residents and fairness but also it’s about this side of the county as well.
“If you live in Shifnal, or Bridgnorth, or Broseley, in the Shropshire Council area, you are equally as impacted by these changes.
“But, what I have done today, publicly, is make a very clear offer to MPs for all five Conservative MPs together with the leader of Shropshire Council to join me in a round-table meeting to come together to put forward a proposal which would see an investment in our health services.
“I think that we should be bold, as a county and as a borough, working together cross-party, cross-council and cross-constituency to put a very clear offer to the Government about securing £1 billion investment for a single-site super-hospital, a world-class hospital fairly located between Telford and Shrewsbury which will serve this county for a generation to come.”
“The last point I would make on this is that it is completely disingenuous for members of parliament to be blaming the current demands on our A&E on Future Fit, for two reasons.
“Firstly, up and down the country the situation is the same. Ambulance waits are at an all-time worst. A&E waits are as bad. It’s not about Future Fit, it’s about a decade of under-funding the NHS and a decade of training places being cut and a decade of underinvestment in social care.
“Secondly, and more to the point, even if Future Fit was pressed today, it would take five years for Future Fit to be built out. That means the demands and the issues we are facing at the moment in our A&Es would continue for that period of time.
“I would say to the MP for Shrewsbury: Stop looking for the battle and start looking for the solution.”
