Shropshire NHS needs to start thinking like a business, not just acting like one

Today's meeting of the Shropshire NHS Trust was a bit of a shambles by all accounts - they didn't announce it properly so it wasn't a legal consultation - but the Park Inn in Telford was packed out (over 300 people) despite being held, yet again, during the working day.

Earlier this month I wrote on this blog that it is the Welsh government that needs to sort out the inadequate health provision in Mid Wales, not the NHS here in Shropshire and I stand by that. I suggested that the Welsh government should invest some of their substantial health budget in building a new hospital in Mid Wales so that the Welsh government can discharge its duty to provide adequate health care to Welsh people without unduly impinging on our health services here in Shropshire. Again, I stand by that comment.

However, it occurs to me that there is a better solution. It can be implemented in the next financial year and it will protect and possibly even improve health services in Shropshire. As the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) is an integral part of the Welsh government's health provision for Mid Wales, the Welsh government can contribute part of its health budget towards the general running costs of the hospital.

The Welsh government doesn't provide hospital services to Mid Wales, which has a population of about 209,000. Instead it uses the RSH and other English and Welsh hospitals to provide those services. The RSH is the primary hospital for the county of Powys which has a population of approximately 132,000. The population of Shropshire is only around 283,000 (as of 2001). Almost a third of the people in the catchment area for the RSH are the responsibility of the Welsh government. It is only fair, therefore, that the Welsh government should contribute more than a fee per patient treated (at a discounted rate, inexplicably) and should instead contribute a proportionate amount of the actual running costs of the RSH.

The NHS in England is no longer run as a public service, it is run as a business and the NHS in Shropshire is in effect providing an outsourced health service to the Welsh government. Any outsourcing business that didn't either charge their client a share of the capital cost of running a shared service or a usage charge at an inflated price to recover a share of the capital costs would soon be out of business and deservedly so. If the NHS in Shropshire is going to act like an outsourcing business then it needs to start thinking like one.

The second attempt at today's consultation will be taking place at the Park Inn in Telford at 1pm this coming Monday. I hope to be there to put this argument across to the representatives of the Shropshire NHS.