Shropshire Star comment: Prognosis not good for merger
One could be tactful, and say that proposals to merge the clinical commissioning groups for Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire will be met with a sceptical reaction.
However, when people realise the true implications of the plans, we suspect they will go down like a lead balloon in some quarters.
The motives for the merger are clear enough. Shropshire CCG has debts of well over £50 million, and it is hoped that the merger will reduce running costs across the two trusts by 20 per cent. Supporters of the plan will no doubt argue that tough times mean tough choices, and that patients would rather see the merger of two administrative bodies than cuts to frontline services.
But while these arguments might sound fine in theory, for patients on the ground, particularly in Telford & Wrekin, the reaction is likely to be very different. Firstly, while Shropshire CCG may be facing a financial crisis, the one in Telford is debt free. Will patients in the east of the county see their services suffer to bail out the cash-strapped west?
Patients in Telford and east Shropshire already feel they have been getting a raw deal over the controversial Future Fit deal, which will see the Princess Royal Hospital lose its blue-light emergency unit, with the services being moved to Shrewsbury. How will they then react to their health body being merged with its larger neighbour? You could hardly blame them for feeling that they are not being listened to and their interests not represented.
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The other elephant in the room is that after six years and the spending of millions of pounds the two CCGs have failed miserably to deliver a vision for hospital care in the county even remotely acceptable to the public. If they cannot successfully work together to deliver that, why will a full-scale merger be any better?
If bringing the two groups together means that funds are managed wisely, patients across the county are fairly represented, and administrative costs are reduced, then there is nothing to fear.
But given the experience of the past few years, you can hardly blame people for being cynical.
