Shropshire hospital plan to go to government in summer

Under the plans, A&E in Shrewsbury would be replaced by an upgraded "Emergency Centre", while Telford's would be downgraded to an "Urgent Care Centre"

An outline plan for reconfiguring Shropshire's two main hospitals will be presented to the government this summer.

In 2019, approval was given for a proposal for Shrewsbury to house the county's main emergency care centre.

Shropshire and Telford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said work on the scheme was paused in February 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But it said work was ongoing with NHS England on a revised plan.

In 2018 the government agreed to pay £312m towards the proposal, which included downgrading Telford's Princess Royal Hospital's A&E unit, and moving maternity and other women's services back to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

But the costs of the original plan were then understood to have reached £500m, and NHS England said the outline case needed to have an option costing £312m.

In the letter, responding to Health Secretary Sajid Javid's request for a progress update, the CCG said, its outline case was sent to NHS England in October and it was working on resolving a number of questions and comments within the "current allocation" of funding.

It said the scheme should go forward for national consideration by the Department of Health and Social Care this summer.