English NHS trust instructed to continue planning for needs of Welsh patients
Mike Sheridan, local government reporter
An English NHS trust has been instructed by a UK Government advisory body to continue planning for the needs of Welsh patients after approving hospital shakeup proposals.
After four years of delays the Shropshire and Telford NHS Trust’s Hospitals Transformation Programme have been given the go ahead by the advisory body.
Plans to progress the scheme were on hold after Telford and Wrekin leader Shaun Davies wrote to the Health Secretary in March 2023 asking for the case to be referred to an independent body, claiming a “significant expansion in the provision of healthcare in Powys” meant it was incorrect to include the needs of mid Wales residents when making decisions about healthcare in Shrewsbury and Telford.
Newtown
A business case for a “Health Hub” and a proposed new hospital facility in Newtown is due to be submitted to the Welsh Government in the summer.
But the report delivered by the government’s Independent Reconfiguration Panel recommends that the region’s hospital reorganisation should now go ahead as planned.
“Powys patients will continue to need access to emergency and planned care in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and the NHS Trust’s data modelling has considered all activity, including from Powys, to determine future demand for their services which is included in the outline business case,” it said.
“The Panel concludes that the approach and evidence set out in the NHS Trust’s strategic outline case and outline business case to consider the needs of the population of mid-Wales remains correct and in line with national guidance on cross-border healthcare.”
Repatriation
The report added that Powys Teaching Health Board plans to repatriate certain services to north Powys include low complexity day cases, diagnostics and outpatient services but were constrained to what could be provided in a “community hospital setting.”
The panel made the recommendation that: “The healthcare needs of the residents of mid Wales must continue to be considered as part of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Transformation Programme.”
Powys Teaching Health Board has been contacted for comment.
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Health is devolved with a generous settlement. Why can we not stand on our own two feet. Same for airports.
It is not a generous settlement, Barnett does not take into account our older population, our historically sicker population, and our historically more poverty stricken population. This has been known for decades yet is never changed.
Secondly, it also works the other way round, I grew up on the English side of Chepstow and went to hospitals in Cardiff because the English clinic was in Birmingham.
Finally, due to cost cutting (Austerity) hospital services are centralised to save money, meaning rural areas lose hospitals to larger urban areas.