Future fit motion referred to Health Secretary

The decision to downgrade Telford’s A&E and move the town’s Women’s and Children’s Centre to Shrewsbury will be referred to the Health Secretary.

Telford and Wrekin councillors voted unanimously to ask Matt Hancock to step in over Future Fit, the reorganisation of Shropshire’s hospital services that was approved by the local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) last month.

The senior Labour councillor who tabled the motion said the Future Fit decision was detrimental to the borough’s health services, and the consultation that led up to it was inadequate.

The Conservative opposition leader added that it was “ridiculous” to move the £28 million Women’s and Children’s Centre just four years after it was opened.

The Future Fit plan will make the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital Shropshire’s main emergency care centre, while the Princess Royal Hospital’s A&E will be reclassified as an urgent care centre dealing with non-life-threatening cases.

RSH will also take on on most women’s and children’s services, while PRH will take over responsibility for planned care.

Speaking at the time of the board’s decision, Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group chief officer David Evans said: “This is all about a huge improvement in the care patients will receive and the majority of patients are still going to be seen in their local hospital in the urgent care centre.

“In order for the local NHS to deliver top quality emergency care, we need all specialities on one site.”

In an emergency meeting last night, Telford and Wrekin Council debated a motion which read: “This council is disappointed by the decision. This council is of the opinion that this decision has not been properly consulted upon and is not in the interests of health services in Telford and Wrekin.

“Accordingly, this council should formally report this decision to the Secretary of State and ask him to review the decision.”

Councillor Andy Burford, who chairs two health committees, said: “Having had to sit silently through this council’s many debates on Future Fit, I’m pleased to now be able to propose this motion.

“How did we get to the point where only two mirror-image options, that pitted Telford against Shrewsbury, were left on the table?

“The answer is that other options, such as a single-site hospital, were ruled out, not through consultation or for clinical reasons, but on cost grounds.

“Furthermore, Future Fit never gave any indication they were willing to re-look at any other approaches. Quite the contrary.”

He claimed the consultation started late, denying the public or the council the chance to shape the proposal early on, and his scrutiny committee’s requests for more information about the financial basis for Future Fit were not met.

He said: “We were told, in effect, ‘Don’t worry your head about what else we’ll have to do to other services to make it stack up. We’ll manage it’.”

He warned that Future Fit could be the “thin end of the wedge” for Telford, and that further downgrading could follow.

He said: “What would you do, in the future, when people in Powys and west Shropshire start looking elsewhere for planned care because the PRH is too far?
“Won’t SaTH (Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust) need to respond?”

Conservative leader Andrew Eade warned that the motion “on its own, I think, doesn’t go far enough in providing robust reasons to ensure the Secretary of State will review the decision”.

Cllr Eade called on all parties to work together, and involve local experts and campaigners to build the strongest case.

He added: “The issue around the Woman and Children’s Centre is central. It’s a simple one you can’t get round.

“Four years ago they spent £28m putting it in on demonstrable need, and now they’re looking at ripping it out.

“That is ridiculous. You can’t defend that sort of action at all.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Karen Blundell said: “I’m extremely annoyed that in Britain in the 21st century a town with a population in excess of 170,000 people has to keep fighting to retain its health services.

“Telford is often seen as the poor relation of Shropshire, and the real fear is that this could cost us lives.

“We shouldn’t have to suffer – and suffer we will – especially as our borough is growing. We have a young population, and our Women and Children’s unit was sited in Telford as this was a proven need.

“Nothing has changed, so to move it away from Telford without real evidence is folly.”

The 49 councillors present all voted to support the motion.