The leaders of Telford & Wrekin Council and Shropshire Council have met Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP in London to express their concern at the ‘disarray’ in Shropshire’s local NHS.
At the meeting, organised by Mark Pritchard MP, Councillor Shaun Davies and Councillor Malcolm Pate stressed the risks it poses to the community and the serious shortcomings in an overarching plan (called the Sustainability and Transformation Plan, or STP) to transform and make financially viable NHS healthcare across Telford and Wrekin and Shropshire.
The STP was published before Christmas and drew heavy criticism from both Council leaders and NHS England for focussing too much on changing emergency hospital services and not addressing community-based care and keeping people out of hospital.
At the meeting, the decision-making process, called ‘Future Fit’ that led to the recommended siting of the county’s one A&E department and the Women and Children’s Centre was also outlined to the Secretary of State.