Rescue plan for PRH A&E – we must all push for this
A number of urgent steps towards a rescue plan to stop the “avoidable” overnight closure of PRH’s A&E have been spelled out by Telford & Wrekin Council.
This follows a crisis meeting between the hospital Trust’s chairman and chief executive this morning and the Council’s cabinet and senior managers.
The top priority is to get Health Secretary Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, who is expected in Birmingham next week, and national NHS leaders to urgently intervene to ensure that SaTH receives extra middle grade doctors and nurses over and above its normal allocation by the NHS and that a clear commitment to this happening is made immediately.
Cabinet members heard that SaTH’s most pressing issue is ensuring that more of these key posts at the Trust are filled immediately as it cannot continue to
operate its two A&Es with current staffing levels
.
If this can be urgently resolved then the overnight closure of PRH would be avoided.
The Council is calling on all the county’s MPs, councillors and other groups to urgently lobby the Secretary of State for Health and the NHS’ most senior decision makers to provide SaTH with the help it so urgently needs.
Leader Cllr Shaun Davies said: “The message we heard today and at yesterday’s board meeting was that this situation is avoidable and a solution is there if those responsible higher up choose to intervene. Yet so far they have washed their hands of it.
“Other hospital trusts have received the extra help that SaTH so desperately needs yet Telford and Shropshire appears to have been ignored.
“We must now all pull together and raise this issue as high and as loudly as we can - with Secretary of State and those at the top in the NHS. They have the power to resolve this and stop something that SaTH themselves say is wholly avoidable.
“It just needs one call from the very top and I believe all this could be sorted.
“For the people who use our hospitals and for the staff who work so tirelessly to deliver a good service, we must work together to find a solution and not waste time playing blame games.”
Pictured are SaTH Chairman Ben Reid, Cllr Shaun Davies and SaTH chief executive Simon Wright followingthis morning's meeting
