Statement on the temporary suspension of overnight A&E services at the Princess Royal Hospital

On Thursday 27 September 2018, The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust Board agreed to temporarily suspend overnight A&E services at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford to ensure services are safe for patients.

NHS Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have made the following statement in relation to Future Fit in response:

“The decision by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust board to temporarily suspend overnight A&E services at the Princess Royal Hospital is to ensure services remain safe in the light of prevailing staffing challenges.

“The temporary suspension of overnight A&E services in Telford does not impact on the Future Fit process and does not pre-empt a decision.

“Future Fit is about finding a long-term solution to the challenges we are facing at our hospitals. We’ve heard from thousands of people across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales as part of our consultation, and we will take people’s views and concerns into consideration before making a decision.”

 

About NHS Future Fit

NHS Future Fit is about improving the hospital services provided at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shrewsbury and the Princess Royal Hospital Telford to meet the needs of our communities across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales.

Our proposed new model of hospital care is to change the hospital services provided at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital, so that:

  • one hospital provides emergency care services (including women and children’s inpatient services) and
  • the other hospital provides planned care services.

Both hospitals would have an urgent care centre that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Separating emergency and planned care would help make sure that:

  • Our communities receive safer, high quality and sustainable hospital services
  • Patients receive the very best care in the right place at the right time
  • Patients receive their care within better facilities
  • We attract the very best doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff to work at our hospitals
  • We can continue to have two vibrant hospitals in our county
  • Patients’ operations are highly unlikely to be cancelled due to an emergency admission
  • We reduce waiting times for patients across both our hospitals
  • We have the right level of highly skilled doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff working across our two hospitals

Find out more in the Future Fit consultation document.