MP welcomes NHS Shrewsbury proposal

The recommendation to locate an Emergency Care Services for Shropshire and Mid Wales at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital has been warmly welcomed by Montgomeryshire MP, Glyn Davies.

Members of the Future Fit programme board also recommended that Urgent Care Centres should be located both at Shrewsbury and at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford to reduce pressure on the Emergency Care Centre.

The new NHS structure serving Shropshire and Mid Wales would see Shrewsbury caring for patients in need of critical and emergency care, as well as stroke services. It has also been recommended that the Women and Children’s Centre, currently situated at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford, should be relocated to Shrewsbury.

A formal public consultation on the programme board’s recommendations will now take place, with no formal decisions are expected until the middle of 2017.

Mr Davies reacted: “Over the three years since the Future Fit programme was established to review NHS services within Shropshire, I have always believed the only logical location for an 'Emergency Centre' is on the site of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

“The announcement Wednesday of the programme’s recommendations is brilliant news for patients across Mid Wales, who are dependent on accessible NHS emergency care services being located in the Shrewsbury Hospital. 

“I have long accepted that there can only be only one 'Emergency Care' unit dealing with life threatening emergencies in Shropshire, supported by Urgent Care Centres at both Shrewsbury and Telford, and ‘rural’ Care Centres strategically located across Shropshire and Mid Wales.  

“It seems to have taken an age to reach a position of having recommendations for public debate, but I very pleased that after numerous delays, the programme’s proposals have now gone for public consultation.

“But today is just one albeit important step on the road to the NHS structure we need to serve Shropshire and Mid Wales. When the consultation process is complete, and a final proposal on the future is agreed, there will be perhaps the most important challenge of all. The area's MPs will need to come together in a campaign to persuade the U.K Government to commit the £300 million needed to finance the proposals. There remains many more hurdles to clear, but today was an important first hurdle.”