Council sets up meeting with Indian Consul General for A&E doctor and nurse recruitment for PRH A&E
A top level meeting take places tomorrow (Thursday) with the Consul General of India in Birmingham Dr Aman Puri in a new bid to help recruit urgently-needed new middle grade A&E doctors and nurses for Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital (PRH).
The lack of these staff is the key reason behind why Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust (SaTH) has warned that it must close the PRH’s A&E overnight. The closure is expected to begin in November and to last at least six months.
The meeting, arranged by the mayor of Telford and Wrekin Cllr Raj Mehta, will involve council leader Shaun Davies and SaTH’s chief executive Simon Wright.
They want to use the meeting with Dr Puri to ask for his help in urgently attracting middle grade A&E doctors and nurses to come and work at the PRH.
At the meeting Cllr Davies and Mr Wright will outline the opportunities for middle grade A&E doctors and nurses from India to come and work at the PRH and the Trust and will ask what help Dr Puri could give in promoting this in India.
The Trust has a package of measures to help attract medical staff from overseas including three months’ free accommodation to help new employees settle in.
Council leader Shaun Davies said: “We must all work together and use any route we have to help solve the root cause of the planned closure PRH’s A&E overnight, which is the lack of these key middle grade A&E staff and the difficulty in recruiting them.
“Telford and the wider Shropshire area is a fantastic place to live and work. We have a great offer and we need to do everything possible to attract new doctors and nurses.
“We must continue to look for positive ways we can work together to solve the recruitment difficulties that SaTH faces. We also want to understand any barriers such as issues with visas that may be stopping qualified doctors and nurses from joining SaTH so that we can try and help get these removed.
“I am very grateful to the Mayor for arranging this and to the Consul General for agreeing to meet with us. Any help, however small, that the Consul General may be able to give will be very welcome.”
Simon Wright, the chief executive of SaTH NHS Trust, said: “We are grateful for all the help and support we’re receiving from Shaun and from all our local politicians. It’s really heartening to see what can be achieved through pooling ideas and working together because what we’d all much prefer, is to find the ED staff that would enable both A&Es to stay open 24 hours a day seven days a week.”
