Welshpool sends defiant message to Health chiefs

Health professionals, political figures and more than 200 residents made a last-gasp effort to save local health services last night (Wednesday) at a passionate public meeting held in Welshpool.

 

Plans by Shropshire Health chiefs to shift vital services from Shrewsbury to Telford were branded as ‘barbaric’ by one mother as the concerned audience came face-to-face with the man charged with implementing cost cutting measures across the border.

 

Our correspondent at the meeting said he had never seen Welshpool so united over one issue and added that Shropshire Health Chief Adam Cairns was visibly taken aback by the response of the crowd.

 

Former Welshpool midwife Meryl Harding led the calls for Shropshire to reconsider by pointing out that it takes 18 minutes on average to reach Shrewsbury already, a time that would more than double to reach Telford.

 

“Those sorts of journeys are a nightmare from a midwives point of view,” she said: “I would hate them to be extended.”

 

Mothers made the most impassioned pleas with many relaying their own personal experiences of emergencies where Telford may have been too far to have made a difference.

 

Political figures pointed out that Shrewsbury would be the most logical hub for Shropshire’s health services due to its central location with Telford located at the eastern tip of the county.

 

MP Glyn Davies has campaigned against health cuts for nine years and insisted “services must remain” while his Conservative colleague Russell George, who is the party’s Assembly candidate, added that “putting an extra 20 minutes onto travelling time will put lives at risk”.

 

AM Mick Bates labelled the proposals “disgusting” and criticised the Welsh Assembly for not protecting health services in Mid Wales.