Our Hospitals need help
The leader of Telford & Wrekin Council has called for an emergency rescue plan to help the NHS trust that runs Shropshire’s two main hospitals.
Cllr Shaun Davies’ call for MPs and the Government to help the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) comes ahead of a decision expected tomorrow to close the A&E department at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital overnight.
SaTH says it needs to consider the drastic measure because there are not enough Emergency Medicine Consultants, middle grade doctors and nurses.
If agreed at SaTH’s board meeting tomorrow (Thursday 27 September), the 8pm to 8am closure of Telford’s A&E could take effect in late October or early November.
Cllr Davies said: “I speak very regularly with SaTH’s doctors, nurses, midwives and managers. What they need is desperate and urgent help. This is a trust that has recently been served with two enforcement notices following inspections by the Care Quality Commission.
“To close the A&E in the area’s town with the biggest population and most pressing health needs will result in significant issues for everyone. Patients will have to go to Wolverhampton or to Stoke-on-Trent.
“If you are having a hospital birth in Telford overnight and you require emergency treatment, this change would mean you will be transported to Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital for immediate care, then back to Telford or Shrewsbury .
If you are an elderly person from Telford needing urgent care overnight, you will also be taken to New Cross Hospital.
Think of the impact of this - social workers from both Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire councils will have to travel to Wolverhampton to assess you before you can be discharged with a package of care. This will take longer, block beds and cost significantly more.
“If you are a police officer in Telford dealing with an issue, you could be stuck at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for hours, taking you away from Telford.
“There are so many issues from closing an A&E overnight that make no sense.
“Such a closure will cost councils, the police, the public and the NHS more. Our local NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups will be paying for our patients to go hospitals outside of SaTH; a damning indictment to our local health system. This is unsustainable.
“It can only be resolved with intervention from the Government. They can help our local hospital trust second doctors from neighbouring trusts. We know that things are tight across the NHS but we also know that there are other trusts who do have capacity in middle grade doctors or consultants, or they have consultants that can act-down as middle grade doctors. This needs to happen urgently and I first wrote the Secretary of State for Health asking for his help almost two years ago warning that if he didn’t act exactly what we warned could would happen. These warnings fell on deaf ears and tomorrow’s decision is a direct result of this.
“The time when Government says this is a local issue for local decisions are long gone. This overnight closure is avoidable if the trust is supported with a rescue plan.
“Our residents and our hard working and dedicated NHS staff deserve better.”
Listen again to Cllr Shaun Davis on BBC Radio Shropshire Breakfast on Wednesday 26 September:
