Council renews bid to force re-think over major hospitals reorganisation
Renewed calls are being made for the government to scrap plans to close Telford’s A&E.
The proposals have again come under fire from Telford & Wrekin Council, which will debate a motion urging the government to rethink the decision at its full council meeting on Thursday.
The Labour-led council’s cabinet member for health, Andy Burford, who will propose the motion, says the Future Fit scheme has “materially changed” since the public was consulted nearly five years ago, and factors such as the town’s growing population and the aftermath of the Covid pandemic also need to be considered.
Under the current proposals for the long-delayed £312 million programme, the emergency department at the Princess Royal Hospital will be downgraded to an ‘A&E Local’, alongside the relocation of consultant-led women and children’s services to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
Councillor Burford’s motion says: “This council agrees to formally ask the government under Schedule 10A of the NHS Act 2006 to reconsider its plans to close Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital A&E and move the consultant-led women and children unit to Shrewsbury.
“A plan agreed by the then Secretary of State for Health Matthew Hancock MP in his letter to the Council dated 2 October 2019.
“The council is on the side of our community and it makes no sense to make Telford the largest town in England without a full 24 hour A&E and close the consultant-led women and children unit which was placed in Telford on compelling clinical need.
“We ask the government to reconsider these plans based on affordability, clinical evidence, growing population, post-Covid practices and that what the public was consulted on in the summer of 2018 – where the overwhelming majority of Telford and Wrekin residents opposed the plans – has materially changed.”
The motion will be seconded by Councillor Angela McClements.
It comes after council leader Shaun Davies delivered a 22,000-name petition to 10 Downing Street last month, urging a rethink of the controversial plans.
A previous motion proposed by Councillor Burford in November, which was backed by members, saw the council write to new Health Secretary Steve Barclay asking for an urgent review of the county’s hospital transformation programme.
The council also said it would “take all steps necessary” to refer the project to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel, which is responsible for giving expert advice to ministers on proposed NHS reconfigurations or significant service change in England.
