Details of the Government-approved plans for the reorganisation of the county's major hospitals are being made public for the first time.
Last month, the Government and the NHS signed off on the latest stage of the 'Future Fit' proposals for Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital Telford – both managed by Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust , by approving the 'Strategic Outline Case for the project.
The main proposals would see RSH become the base for the county's only 24-hour A&E department – currently both RSH and PRH offer the service.PRH will have what has been described as an 'A&E Local,' while consultant-led women and children's services move from Telford to Shrewsbury, with the Telford site becoming the centre for planned care.
Approval of the SOC, which was submitted last October, was delayed after it emerged that SaTH had submitted a proposal that would have cost more than the £312m allocated – understood to have been around £500m. “We simply cannot continue with the current service configuration because it will not be able to meet the future needs of our population and gives rise to significant workforce issues.