It is unreasonable to expect the NHS in Shropshire to configure services to suit Welsh people at the expense of people living in Shropshire

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust is currently consulting on the provision of services across the two general hospitals in the county.

Faced with real terms budget cuts from the British government, the Trust has to consolidate services at the two sites as it is no longer possible to fund the same services at both hospitals.

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.

MP tells of Welsh woe

This article appeared in the Shropshire Star the other day ...

MP tells of Welsh woe

Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski has professed that he loves Wales, but he had plenty of complaints about the principality during a debate in the House of Commons.

The Shrewsbury & Atcham MP questioned Wales’s role in health services in Shropshire, flooding, tuberculosis in cattle, and “unfair and uncompetitive” grants to businesses given by the Welsh Assembly.

“The Welsh Assembly creates huge difficulties for English border towns,” he told MPs.

Mr Kawczynski said the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital was losing £2 million a year as a result of the way the assembly paid for treatment across the border.

“We have patients coming from Wales to the hospital who get life-saving medication to which my constituents in Shrewsbury are not entitled,” he told the Commons.

“I have to fight tooth and nail to secure life-saving treatments for my constituents that people from Wales get automatically in our hospital.

“That causes huge frustration and anger and divides our two communities.”

The Conservative MP said 40,000 cows had to be killed in England last year as a result of bovine TB.

“It is such a shame that there is not more co-operation between our parliament here in London and the Welsh Assembly over the issue, which transcends our borders,” he said.

“There should be far more co-operation in dealing with such major issues.”

Mr Kawczynski said flooding caused “tremendous misery” along the length of the River Severn with Shrewsbury flooding repeatedly.

“The way to resolve the problem is not to have little barriers in each town, but to have a wet washland scheme across the border in Wales,” he said.

“This would flood a large piece of agricultural land, which would become a marsh in the summer, encouraging wildlife, and a lake in winter.”

The Conservative MP said it was unacceptable that a Government minister had intervened to block the idea.

By London Editor John Hipwood

The Shropshire branch of the CEP has been plugging away at all five of the county's MPs, including Daniel. He is nominally supportive of some form of better representation for England and, having sat on a devolution committee, is quite aware of the discrimination England faces.

Co-incidently, I received an email from the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust which covers the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shrewsbury and the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt in Oswestry. Prompted by an announcement by the Welsh Government that Welsh patients would be entitled to a new kidney cancer wonder-drug free of charge on the NHS, I had asked them ...

Will Welsh patients treated in the RSH also get these drugs paid for by the Welsh Assembly? Will it be possible for an English and Welsh patient being treated at the RSH for the same thing and for the English patient to be refused the drugs that the Welsh patient will be getting?

The reply was long-winded but, in a nutshell, the answer was "yes". The question is, what does Daniel propose to do about it? The Tory policy of English Pauses for English Clauses won't resolve the issue, only an English Parliament will by putting English health priorities in the hands of politicians elected to represent English interests.

Click the icon below to view a copy of the letter from the NHS Trust.