Consultation events are being held all over the county where Shropshire residents can have their say but not only are we in Shropshire being consulted, people in Wales are as well.
The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital is used by people in Wales where it is closer than their nearest Welsh hospital but it is not their hospital. Health is devolved and the Welsh government is responsible for providing health services to Welsh people. Welsh health boards pay English NHS Trusts to provide health services to Welsh people. They are customers of the English NHS, they have no right to make decisions on how we provide our service this side of the border.
Of the eight consultations taking place, three are in Wales. A lot of the arguments against moving services from Shrewsbury to Telford that have been reported from the consultation meetings already held revolve around the inconvenience to patients from Mid Wales. Travelling the extra 10 miles to Telford could be the difference between life and death, they are saying. Well yes, it could but then people from South Shropshire travelling the extra 10 miles to Shrewsbury could be the difference between life and death.
In Shropshire it is the responsibility of Shropshire County PCT, Telford & Wrekin PCT and the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust to provide health services to Shropshire people. In Powys it is the responsibility of the Powys Health Board to provide health services to Powys people. In Shropshire the funding comes from the British government, in Powys it comes from the Welsh government.
That there is a shortage of hospitals in Mid Wales is not in question but it is not the responsibility of English hospitals to fill that hole in health provision. The Welsh government chooses to spend a big chunk of its health budget on free prescriptions and hospital parking rather than a general hospital for Powys. That's their choice. The NHS in Shropshire loses £2m per year treating Welsh patients because the Welsh government won't pay the same rate for treating Welsh patients as the British government pays for treating English patients.
The best thing for Shropshire is, of course, to keep a full range of services at both the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital but the British government won't let us have enough of our taxes back to pay for it so services have to be targeted at where they are needed. Telford is the fastest growing town in Shropshire and has by far the largest population of any town in the county - more than twice the size of Shrewsbury and accounting for 35% of the population of the whole county. If services have to be consolidated on one site then the site that can best serve the majority of Salopians is the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
If people in Powys are unhappy with the idea of travelling an extra 10 miles to access services in Telford then they can lobby their Welsh Assembly Member for a new hospital of their own. It is unreasonable to expect the NHS in Shropshire to configure services to suit Welsh people at the expense of people living in Shropshire. The Welsh can't have all the benefits of devolution without the responsibilities that go with it.
