Council says local NHS review must make sense to communities

The local review of NHS services, including hospital care must address the needs of communities in the borough and eastern Shropshire and any decision must balance these issues equally with clinical needs Telford & Wrekin Council says.

Top of the list of community needs are: the journey time for people to get to any main hospital; much higher levels of disadvantage and deprivation in Telford and Wrekin and the link this has to health needs; access to services in rural east Shropshire; and the impact which moving services could have on the long-term viability of the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) and the wider Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust.

The review's recommendations show that more than one in three people in the catchment area served by the two hospitals (36% in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin) live within 20 minutes' drive of the PRH, while less than one in four (23%) live within the same drive time of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH).

It also shows that of Shropshire residents, 62 % live within 20-40 minutes drive from the PRH, while only 44 % are within the same drive time of the RSH.

Telford and Wrekin's rapid growth and bigger population will also widen the population gap further. In particular, the Council points to the number of new homes due to be built in the borough by 2026, compared with Shropshire, which should see the borough's population top 200,000.

The call comes as the NHS in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin has published a series of recommendations for the future of health care services in the area.

Telford & Wrekin Council will now be using independent health care experts to put the four proposed options under the microscope, with the Council earmarking an extra £10,000 to support this scrutiny process, before it responds formally to the options.

Cllr Jacqui Seymour, Cabinet Member for Adult and Consumer Care, said: "I am grateful for the cross party support on this key issue. Together we are united in our desire for the best for the people of the borough and Shropshire.

"Option Two, which would base more services at PRH, is our current preferred outcome and one that we believe the facts, and the needs of our community, support.

"We await to hear what each NHS board has to say about the options and how the debate will no doubt develop from there.

"The Council's scrutiny committee will rigorously examine each of the recommended options and really test the figures and assumptions that lie behind them.

"The review must not create a situation where any hospital becomes marginalised.

"If services were to be moved from PRH, there is a very real danger that patients, particularly from areas in east Shropshire, such as Albrighton, Bridgnorth, Market Drayton and Shifnal, would start to look to hospitals outside the area for their services and thus begin undermining the long-term viability of the whole Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust at a time when the borough is growing and its services need strengthening more than ever."

The NHS review will be debated by the Council on December 11.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

The NHS Boards will consider the review's recommendations across a wide range of health issues, including the proposal for a single site hospital for emergency services and people who are seriously ill by 2020 and four interim options for hospital services by 2012/13. These are:

Option
PRH
RSH

1
Level 3 A and E, urology
Level 2 A and E with acute surgery, inpatient paediatrics, obstetrics and neonates

2
Level 2 A and E with acute surgery, inpatient paediatrics, obstetrics and neonates
Level 3 A and E, urology

3
Level 3 A and E with inpatient paediatrics, urology
Level 2 A and E with acute surgery, obstetrics and neonates

4
Level 2 A and E with acute surgery, and inpatient paediatrics
Level 3 A and E, obstetrics and neonates, urology