Welsh worries over English hospital

Source: BBC News

The Shrewsbury & Telford NHS Trust, which administers the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford and Royal Shrewbury Hospital(RSH) in Shrewsbury, is a few million in debt and are looking to cut services.

One of the proposals is to downgrade one of the hospitals and only offer A&E at the other one. It is most likely going to be the Princess Royal in Telford that gets downgraded because, despite it being a fairly new hospital, it is badly equipped and has huges debts.

However, the Welsh aren't taking any chances and Glynn Davies AM has already scheduled a meeting with the Health Trust amid concerns that Welsh patients in Powys might have to travel to Telford for treatment if they decided to downgrade the RSH instead of the PRH.

Welsh First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, has even appointed someone to investigate.

I remember blogging about the Welsh using the RSH a few months ago. At the time it was discovered that the RSH was losing loads of money because they were obliged to treat Welsh patients but received a fraction of the money they would get for an English patient as the Welsh Assembly paid for the Welsh patients.

Perhaps the Welsh, if they are so concerned, could consider paying the going rate for a patient when they attend the RSH or perhaps even pay a premium as they are being treated outside of their own country - as they would were they to send their patients to, say, the United States.

While they're discussing ways of saving the A&E service at the RSH, they might consider forfeiting their portion of the £15bn of English taxes that are given away to the rest of the UK under the Barnett Formula so that the English NHS might have enough money to offer a similar level of care and treatment that is received in Scotland and Wales.