Shropshire hospitals look to trim down transformation plan

Plans have included moving maternity and other women's services to Shrewsbury

The reorganisation of Shropshire's hospitals is likely to go ahead but without some of the proposed changes due to funding issues, a report says.

The document, from the sites' trust, concludes the "core" plan can be afforded within the £312m budget.

That means Shrewsbury is set to become a base for emergency care and Telford for planned care.

But extra beds and upgrades to theatres, chemotherapy and outpatient provision is deemed to cost too much.

Complaints by critics of the scheme include fears that losing A&E at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital is a downgrade that jeopardises safety by leaving those in the town with further to travel for emergency care.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs the Telford site and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, says it is trying to "resolve longstanding issues of duplicated and fragmented services in an ageing infrastructure that is not fit for delivery of 21st century healthcare".

Standards at SaTH have been under review, including a probe into multiple baby deaths.

SaTH's Strategic Outline Case for the overhaul of services sets out four possible options for the transformation process, first put forward in 2013.

The report says the first option, continuing with the current model, will fail to meet the trust's aims, which are to improve efficiency, reduce workforce duplication between sites, adapt to changing population needs and increase capacity.

The second option makes Shrewsbury the base for emergency medicine plus women and children's services, while leaving an "urgent care" centre in Telford in place of its current A&E department.

Under that plan, Telford would become a base for planned care, with the report saying the changes at both sites can mostly be accommodated within the existing buildings and meet the budget of £312m set by the government.

Such work could be complete by December 2026, according to the report.

Under the plans, Shrewsbury's A&E would become an "Emergency Centre", while Telford's would become an "Urgent Care Centre"

The third option, which the report said would cost a budget-busting £481m, would also involve the creation of new beds, education and training areas, improvements to chemotherapy treatment and upgraded operating theatres.

The fourth option is said to cost £534m and adds improvements to outpatient provision and the creation of a health and wellbeing centre in Telford.

Both plans would take longer to deliver, the report said.

The report added, however, that options three and four would continue to be explored, but it concluded the second option should be the preferred way forward because it would fit the available finances.

SaTH said it would spend the next 12 months drawing up an Outline Business Case, taking feedback from staff and residents of the area.

'A&E Local'

Telford & Wrekin Council said it would "unapologetically continue to fight against plans that are not right for people in our borough and refer the plans to Prime Minister Liz Truss and Health Secretary Thérèse Coffey.

The leader, Shaun Davies, said the reality for people in the area was that the plans would see the Princess Royal Hospital lose its 24-hour A&E and emergency care for mothers and children in a specialist unit that was built just eight years ago.

He added: "Our current A&E will be turned from a supermarket to a corner shop, an "A&E Local", a first for the country and a model that medical experts have openly criticised.

"As the largest town in England with a population which is ageing and one of the fastest growing in the country, this does not make sense."