Proposals

 We want our patients to receive safe, high quality and sustainable health services.  As with hospitals across the country, we are facing a number of challenges, which mean that our patients are not always receiving the safe, high quality NHS care and treatment they should expect.

Current challenges:

  • It is becoming more difficult to make sure that we have enough doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff to provide many of the same services, 24-hours a day, seven days a week at both our hospitals.
  • A local and national shortage of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals has led to difficulties in recruiting. This has placed increasing pressure on our doctors and nurses and some have left to take up jobs at other hospitals where they can enjoy a better work/life balance.
  • Some patients have to wait longer to see a doctor in an emergency or have had their operations cancelled due to an emergency admission.
  • The existing model of A&Es is becoming outdated. At our two A&Es, we are treating patients with minor injuries, for example a sprained ankle, alongside those with a life-threatening illness, such as a stroke.
  • Both our existing hospital sites were built many years ago and they no longer provide the modern environment for delivering high quality services that our patients rightly expect and need.
  • There has never been a greater demand on the NHS. We are living longer and an increasing number of people have long term conditions such as diabetes or complex health needs that require regular hospital care. We also have to meet the future needs of a wide range of populations across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin.
  • We have to be more efficient with our limited resources and use our staff, technology, beds and buildings in a way that benefits patients and their families

For these reasons, staying as we are is simply not an option.

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

Our doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff have spent the last four years listening to and involving thousands of local people about how we can improve and secure the future of our hospital services. Together, we have developed a model of hospital care which we believe will improve the safety, care and experience of all our patients

 New model of hospital care 

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.

Options

 Option 1 and 2

  

Our preferred option 

In August 2017, the CCG Joint Committee confirmed that its preferred option was Option 1, which is for the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to become the Emergency Care site and the Princess Royal Hospital to become the Planned Care site. There are four main reasons for this:

  1. Having the Emergency Care site at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital would mean that it can continue to be a Trauma Unit
  1. Having the Emergency Care site at Shrewsbury would mean fewer people would have to travel further for emergency care
  1. It would better meet the needs of our older population, especially in Shropshire and mid Wales
  1. It offers the best value for money over the long term.

You can read more about the reasons why Option 1 is the preferred option, and what this would mean for you and your family, in our consultation documents

Although we have a preferred option, no final decision will be made until we have considered the views of everyone who responded to our consultation, which ran from 30 May to 11 September 2018. Find out more about our next steps.