Shropshire hospital revamp work 'to start in 2023'

Under Future Fit, Shrewsbury's A&E would become an "Emergency Centre", while Telford's would be downgraded to an "Urgent Care Centre"

Construction work to reconfigure a county's two main hospitals is expected to start next year, the health secretary says.

It comes after approval in 2019 for Shrewsbury to house Shropshire's main emergency care centre.

Work has since been ongoing on a plan to fit within a £312m budget granted by the government a year earlier.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he has an outline plan for the Future Fit programme, which is being reviewed.

Shropshire and Telford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), had said work on the scheme was put on hold February 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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.

The proposals have faced opposition in Telford from people who claim the move is a "downgrade"

But the costs of the original plan were then understood to have reached £500m.

At the time though, NHS England said an option costing a total of £312m was required.

In March, it was reported the scheme should go forward for national consideration by the Department of Health and Social Care this summer.

The plans were previously branded a "smokescreen" for a downgrade by people in Telford who said the changes mean people living in the area will have to travel further for emergency care and fear lives will be put at risk.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski asked Mr Javid to ensure the money "is spent as expeditiously and quickly as possible".

In response, the health secretary said his department had received a strategic outline case for the programme and the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs both hospitals, aims to present its full business case by 2023.

Construction, he said, will start in the same year and be completed by 2028.