29 January 2019

The Trust which runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals has welcomed a decision to transform hospital services for the people of Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales.

The Joint Committee of Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) has approved Option 1 of the NHS Future Fit plans which means the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford will become a dedicated Planned Care site and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) will become a specialist Emergency Care site. This will allow specialist doctors to treat the most serious cases on the Emergency Care site, which is proven to be safer, provide better results for patients and reduce the amount of time people have to stay in hospital.

By having a separate Planned Care site, patients will wait less time for their appointments and beds would be protected for planned operations, meaning that is highly unlikely operations will be cancelled due to emergency admissions. In addition, patients will be able to access 24-hour urgent care services at both hospitals. This means that the vast majority of patients will continue to go to the same hospital as they do now for emergency and urgent care.

This landmark decision will result in better care for patients, secure the £312 million from HM Treasury and develop both hospital sites to deliver state-of-the-art facilities in which staff will be proud to work and patients will choose to be treated.

Simon Wright, Chief Executive of The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs RSH and PRH, said: “We are delighted that a decision on the future of our hospitals has been made and that we can now get on with the work of planning and creating two new, state-of-the-art hospitals to provide the best care for the whole population of Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales.

“The decision means we can begin to shape the future for all of our services, which will help us to attract more staff, improve facilities for our people and develop healthcare that will benefit everyone.”

Dr Edwin Borman, Medical Director at SaTH, added: “This announcement means we will now be able to provide improved services for the 500,000 people we serve and improved facilities, which will help us recruit more of the very best people in their fields.

“These two re-developed hospitals will provide improved emergency care and improved planned care. It is important to remember that the majority of people who access our current A&Es will still be able to have treatment at their nearest hospital when the reconfiguration is complete. Only those most seriously ill and injured patients, in the main people who need to be taken to hospital in a blue-light ambulance, will need to access the new Emergency Centre, which will have the right people and the right equipment in place to ensure they are treated as quickly as possible.”

Deirdre Fowler, Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Quality at SaTH, said: “The reconfiguration of our hospitals will allow us to address many of the historic issues we have been dealing with in terms of the age of our hospitals and the way they are set up. This is not the end of the journey; we will turn our focus to ensuring that services in each hospital are the best they can be, and our patients will play a vital role in that through co-producing services in the future.”

A significant amount of work will now take place to implement the huge improvements that patients will experience.

The following services will be provided at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital:

* 24-hour Emergency Department

* Critical Care Unit

* Ambulatory Emergency Care Unit

* Emergency surgery and medicine

* Complex planned surgery

* Women and children’s consultant-led inpatient services

The following services will be provided at the Princess Royal Hospital:

* Planned inpatient surgery

* Day case surgery

* Breast inpatient services

* Medical wards

Most people will still receive care and treatment in the same hospital as they do now, as the following services will be provided at both hospitals:

* 24-hour Urgent Care Centre (the majority of patients who attend our A&E departments will receive care and treatment here)

* Adult and children’s outpatient services

* Day Case Renal Unit

* Tests (diagnostics)

* Midwife Led Unit (MLU)

* Antenatal Day Assessment Unit

* Early Pregnancy Assessment Service (EPAS)

* Maternity outpatients and scanning

More information can be found at www.nhsfuturefit.org