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Myths
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Facts
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I've not had chance to have my say about these changes
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We want as many people as possible to be involved in the discussions and decisions that are needed over the coming months. There are lots of opportunities to get involved, including taking part in one of our focus groups or attending a Patient and Public briefing.
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The changes are all about saving money
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These changes are driven by the need to develop safe and sustainable services in the county. Whilst we have to consider the financial implications of these changes, patient safety is our highest priority.
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Staff will be made redundant
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Our senior doctors, nurses and clinical teams are working hard with our human resource team to work out what staff we will need to run our services in the future. The numbers of staff will be based on best practice and guidance from organisations such as the Royal Colleges. We are working hard to keep the impact on staff and patients to a minimum.
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I am worried about the distance I will need to travel to the new inpatient acute surgery centre at RSH.
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Travelling to receive the best possible care and treatment is now recognised as often being the best option for patients, especially in an emergency or ugent situations. For example, across the region the NHS has putting in place regional Trauma Centres (e.g. Stoke and Birmingham) working with local Trauma Units (e.g. RSH) so that we can offer the best treatment and recovery for people with multiple injuries. So, although it may be further for you to travel, or for your relatives to visit the acute surgery centre at RSH, it is important that you are in the best place to receive expert care. For acute inpatient surgery, RSH will be that place. Remember that most surgery now takes place as a day case and does not need an overnight stay in hospital. PRH and RSH will continue to offer day case surgery.
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I will have to travel further for my appointment
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The main reason that people visit hospital is to attend an outpatient appointment. Both hospitals will continue to provide outpatients appointments. There are about 500,000 patient appointments and inpatient stays in our hospitals each year. Of these, about 98% will stay exactly where they are now.
We are planning a new shuttle bus which will take patients, carers and visitors between hospital sites. We are also working closely with ambulance services in England and Wales.
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The ambulance service will not be able to cope with longer journeys
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For many people, the journey to hospital will actually be shorter. Even so, we are still working hard with the ambulance Trusts to reduce the impact a longer journey may have for some of our patients.
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The extra travel time could be dangerous for patients
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Many patients already travel outside the area for emergency treatment, and these systems work safely. We are looking carefully at these systems so that they continue to work in future when these changes are put into place.
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These changes to women and children's services are imminent
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Most services for women and children will stay as they are until summer 2014, when the new women and children's unit is expected to open at PRH. There may be some changes for a small number of people as part of our wider reconfiguration of services. For example, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital is becoming our main centre for inpatient acute surgery during 2012. However, the main changes to women and children's services will not take place until the new facilities are in place in 2014.
When the new facilities are open, women will go to PRH if they need a consultant-led birth or need to stay in hospital for specialist women's surgery (e.g. gynaecology, breast). Children will go to PRH if they need to stay in hospital overnight or are using our children's cancer and haematology service.
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All maternity services are moving to PRH
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Only consultant-led maternity services are moving to PRH. This includes women who are expecting twins, women with diabetes, women who have previously had caesareans, women whose babies are in a breech position and women whose babies are premature. Women will still be able to choose to have their baby at home, at one of our community midwifery-led units, the community midwifery-led units run by Powys Teaching Health Board or at the midwife-led unit at RSH. All antenatal appointments and scans will continue to take place as they do now.
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RSH will be downgraded
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This is not true. Most patients visiting hospital attend for an outpatient appointment. In fact, around four out of every five (80%) contacts with our hospitals are for outpatient appointments. Most outpatient appointments will continue as they are now. RSH will also maintain its A&E department and it became a designated Trauma Unit in April 2012. It will also become a Centre for Adult Surgery, where most surgery where you have to stay overnight will take place. There will continue to be a Children’s Assessment Unit (PAU) at RSH. The hospital will also benefit from the new Cancer and Haematology Centre development, the first phase of which opened its doors to patients in April 2012.
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