Future Fit decision meeting venue criticised

Health bosses have defended their decision to make the Future Fit announcement in a venue 10 miles away from the A&E they are expected to close and described by some as “inaccessible” by public transport.

The region’s NHS commissioners will hold their meeting at Harper Adams University, an agricultural college outside Newport.

They are expected to approve “option one”, which would see accident and emergency cover provided exclusively by the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, with Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital carrying out planned care only.

The leader of Telford and Wrekin Council, Shaun Davies, said the meeting venue “defied common sense”, but a statement by the CCGs said it was the best venue available on that date.

Donnington and Muxton parish councillor John Thompson told his colleagues he had raised the point about accessibility at a previous NHS meeting.

He said: “I attended a meeting at the Whitehouse Hotel and asked that the Future Fit announcement could be somewhere accessible by public transport.
“This certainly is not.”

Parish council chairman Phil Loughlin said the joint committee of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups had a choice of possible venues.

These included The Place Theatre at Oakengates, which is regularly used for meetings of Telford and Wrekin Council and is less than a quarter-mile walk from a railway station and has a capacity of nearly 500.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust will have its next public board meeting in a lecture theatre at the PRH itself.

“And yet they’ve chosen Harper Adams agricultural college”, Cllr Loughlin added.

“What a place they’ve chosen!”

Cllr Davies confirmed on Twitter that he had written to both CCGs about the venue choice.

He added: “There is very little common sense when it comes to Future Fit, this included.”

Harper Adams University is 10 miles away from the PRH and is served by a bus stop, near the junction of the B5062 and Flatt Road, Edgmond. It is roughly an hour’s bus journey from Shrewsbury, and travelling there from most parts of Telford involves changing buses in Newport.

In a joint statement, Shropshire CCG accountable officer Simon Freeman and David Evans, the chief officer at the Telford and Wrekin CCG, said: “The previous joint committee meeting, in August 2017, was held in Shrewsbury and, therefore, the CCGs decided to hold this next meeting in Telford and Wrekin.

“There is no obligation on the CCGs to hold this meeting in public.

“However, the CCGs decided that, in the interests of being open, transparent and honest, members of the public would be invited to attend.

“We needed a venue that could accommodate as many people as possible, that has the right facilities and is available on a date in which all members of the Joint Committee could attend.

“Due to these reasons, Harper Adams University proved to be the best venue to serve this meeting.”

They added that those who cannot attend the meeting can view it online at www.nhsfuturefit.org