Your support for PRH has been vital - thank you
With news that the temporary overnight closure of Princess Royal Hospital's A&E will now not go ahead, leader Shaun Davies has thanked everyone who supported the Council's actions to object to the planned closure and support the hospital to help with recruitment of key A&E doctors and nurses.
Cllr Davies thanked the volunteers, businesses, organisations and town and parish councils for supporting his appeal to help the Princess Royal Hospital recruit A&E doctors.
"We’ve not just talked about it – we’ve done something about it.”
Cllr Shaun Davies will tell tonight’s meeting of the Full Council about how the community has come together to help in a project to refurbish doctors accommodation on the hospital site.
When completed, the accommodation will be offered free of charge to junior and middle grade doctors. The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the Princess Royal Hospital, will be the only hospital trust to offer such accommodation for free.
The project has financially been supported by eight town and parish councils in the borough who have collectively donated more than £30,000. They are Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council (£5,000), Great Dawley Town Council (£5,000), Wellington Town Council (£4,800), Wrockwardine Wood and Trench Parish Council (£2,500), Newport Town Council (£2,500) and, more recently, Oakengates Town Council £5,000), St Georges & Priorslee Parish Council (£5,000) and Dawley Hamlets Parish Council (£1,000).
The refurbishment work is one of a number of recent efforts to help recruit staff to the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust whose A&E department in Telford faces overnight closure from next month.
Cllr Davies will tell members of Telford & Wrekin Council: “Here is a summary of what we have achieved so far: We called on the Government to scrap pay caps for doctors and nurses to help SaTH recruit in the short term.
“To help with longer term recruitment, we met the Indian Consul General to secure Commonwealth Doctors. This has resulted in a number of approaches from doctors in India.
“We are working on the creation of a Telford medical school to ‘grow our own’ doctors and nurses to work in our local hospital and the ‘game changer’. Not my words, but those of a consultant anaesthetist. We are helping to refurbish houses on the site of the Princess Royal Hospital. This WILL help with recruitment.
“We haven’t just talked about it – we’ve done something about it.”
