Shropshire Star

Telford MP Lucy Allan raising her Future Fit concerns in Parliament

The panel recommending whether plans for Shropshire's major hospitals go ahead was today interviewing Telford MP Lucy Allan today.

Published
Lucy Allan

Ms Allan was meeting Independent Reconfiguration Panel chairman Lord Ribeiro and chief executive Richard Jeavons in Parliament to discuss the Future Fit plans for the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.

The meeting was taking place alongside other Shropshire MPs.

Ms Allan said she would raise her concerns about the impact of the proposal on Telford residents and the process that has led to the decision to move services from Telford to Shrewsbury.

She added that she would stress that all Telford & Wrekin representatives oppose the plan and that the Telford's Clinical Commissioning Group was also originally against the scheme.

'Health inequalities'

She said: “Throughout the whole process, we have heard clinicians being in favour of moving services from Telford to Shrewsbury but the reality is Telford & Wrekin CCG were unanimously opposed to this scheme. Then pressure was brought to bear and the independent panel needs to be aware of this.

“Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH) have always failed to explain to Telford residents how our borough will benefit from this £312 million investment scheme and have repeatedly failed to address the issue of health inequalities between the areas the trust serves.

“The trust cannot ignore the consultation which saw widespread dissatisfaction with the Future Fit plan, and must meet the health needs of my constituents. I will be making these points to Lord Ribeiro."