Overnight A&E closures from mid-November

Telford’s A&E department could close overnight from mid-November.

Health bosses from the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals (SaTH) Trust agreed last month to press ahead with the department closure of the Princess Royal Hospital between 8pm and 8pm on safety grounds.

Dr Julie Davies, director of Performance and Delivery at Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), revealed yesterday that work is ongoing to introduce the closure in just a few weeks time.

She said that “many groups” are working on how the change can be implemented and that NHS Improvement and NHS England have been contacted to seek further support.

Some members of the board raised concerns at the short timeframe and the impact this could have on patient safety.

But chairman of the CCG, Dr Julian Povey, voiced his frustrations at SaTH bosses and said “they don’t help themselves” for not being quick enough to admit their problems.

He said: “Sometimes it is a bit like trying to catch a bouncing ball, you want to catch the ball but it is so hard when you don’t know what the numbers are.”

Dr Povey’s comments come after a SaTH released new figures last week of how many staff it requires to keep open both the PRH A&E and the A&E at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

The minimum figure is currently seven additional middle grade A&E doctors and 15 more registered A&E nurses.

Meanwhile, SaTH bosses have said they are doing all they can to avoid the overnight closure of the PRH A&E department.

Carol McInnes, assistant chief operating officer for Unscheduled Care at SaTH, said: “Nobody at SaTH wants to go ahead with the overnight closure and we are not just sitting back and letting it happen. We will continue to work hard until we have exhausted every conceivable option.

“We are continuing to talk to partners across the health system to see if there is any way of addressing the immediate problem and we are also continuing with recruitment efforts for both doctors and nurses to increase staffing in the medium to long-term.”