Shropshire Star Comment: Staff welcome but proper plan vital
We must be grateful that 40 new staff have been appointed to help ease Shropshire battle winter pressures at county hospitals.
Given the state of flux that surrounds the NHS in our county, it is heartening that additional help will be on hand as we head towards the busiest of times of the year.
Winter brings more than just chills and flu, it can also precipitate more serious conditions and the strain on our NHS is considerable.
However, we ought not to imagine that the difficulties facing local health services have been cured. They have not. In many ways, it seems like a sticking plaster is being taken to address ingrained issues.
The lack of consultants remains a key concern and simply adds to the sense that more must be done to ameliorate health services in Shropshire.
Our health service is too important to be allowed to continue to drift and something must be done that will improve things permanently.
As with the long-delayed Future Fit process, it too often seems as though the NHS is fire-fighting, rather than having the resources, strategy and manpower to plan for the future.
The additional nurses are welcome but more must be done.
