NHS Future Fit to Continue to work to meet challenges for local patients

The Programme Board of NHS Future Fit today committed that the programme will continue as it offers the best solution to challenges facing the local NHS.

They have however agreed to defer a decision on naming a preferred option for transforming NHS services for patients in Telford, Shropshire and Mid Wales.

The deferral will allow more detailed work to be carried out into financial and staffing challenges.

David Evans and Brigid Stacey, senior responsible officers for Telford and Wrekin and Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Groups said: "Representatives from across the area have decided there is no preferred option and there will be no consultation this year.

"The NHS Future Fit Programme to-date has involved an immense amount of hard work and told us clearly why services need to change and why 'no change' is not an option.

"It has engaged clinicians and the public in outlining a compelling clinical model for the future, including for our patients in Mid Wales. This includes a network of urgent care centres supported by a single emergency centre.

"We have engaged patients and communities so we can better understand their needs, hopes and concerns."

Work will be carried out developing Outline Business Cases based on both Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital as the single Emergency Centre.

David and Brigid said: "We still have an opportunity to create something that will deliver for several decades to come. We plan to be able to say something further within the next month."

More information from NHS Future Fit

What have we heard?

Hospital Clinicians are telling us that we're not moving quickly enough to address the critical workforce challenges facing their services and patients.

Community clinicians and GPs are telling us that we're not being ambitious enough in designing a new and fully integrated system that supports the growing number of us living with long term conditions.

Patients and communities are telling us that we need to do more to work with them to define a compelling vision of what health care services will look like in future in each of our localities.

While patients and clinical safety come first we do also have to acknowledge financial realities. The financial climate for the NHS has changed dramatically in the last year. The money we receive enables us to invest in the future health of our communities. We must live within our means and not bankrupt future generations. Current options help but there are wider financial issues in the local NHS that also need to be tackled. We can't identify a preferred option to discuss with the public until these wider issues are addressed.

NHS Future Fit has done very valuable work

It has told us clearly why services need to change – not least the immense fragility of key hospital services on which we all rely ... emergency care, acute medicine, critical care to name but a few. This means that "no change" is not a realistic option.

It has engaged clinicians in outlining a compelling clinical model for the future of health care delivery in Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, including for our patients in mid Wales. This includes a network of urgent care centres supported by a single Emergency Centre.

It has engaged patients and communities so we can better understand their needs and hopes and concerns.

It has set out what we expect the future to look like in terms of the number of operations, appointments, procedures and how we can provide more care closer to home.

What do we need to do now?

We are asking SATH and hospital clinicians to work with patients and wider stakeholders to develop solutions to the immediate challenges their services face. This includes immediate business continuity as well as developing Outline Business Cases based on both Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital as the single Emergency Centre. These should be developed by next summer for public consultation in 2016.

As local commissioners, we will work with service providers to look again at a whole system plan that best meets the needs of our communities within the financial framework in which we all have to operate.

Before the end of October the Programme's Core Group will set out, at a high level, how this work will be undertaken and the timescales for it. We expect to share more detail later this month.