A Newport ambulance technician has said plans to slash services at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital will have a horrendous effect, mounting pressure on staff and putting town people in danger.
Earlier this week it was revealed that the hospital is set to lose its acute clinical services and most of its A&E department as part of a dramatic countrywide health shake-up.
The downgrading is made in a report to be submitted to Telford & Wrekin Primary Care Trust next Tuesday.
Town technician James McCartney, based in Madeley, covers the Newport patch and he said the cutbacks would have a huge impact on the job.
He said: “If I work a 12 hour shift there would be close to 10 jobs a day involving the Princess Royal Hospital.
“The majority of our jobs are acute cases and the majority need to be referred to Telford or a GP. We would be forced to travel to Shrewsbury meaning our turn around times will be horrendously affected.
“We will need to be covered when we are making the trip which means there will need to be more ambulances on the road.
“It will put added pressure on staff and I don’t think that the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital will be able to cope with added volume of human traffic. Telford has a far bigger hospital.”
Newport MP, Mark Pritchard, said he will ‘fight with all his might’ plans by Shrewsbury & Telford NHS Hospital Trust to cut services claiming it will put ‘Newport lives at risk’.
The Wrekin MP, has led a seven year campaign warning about possible cuts – and has collected a Parliamentary Petition which has more than 10,000 names.
Mr Pritchard said: “I call on all people in Newport to back my campaign against these cuts and to sign my petition.”
Senior partner of the town’s Linden Hall Surgery Dr Roger Henderson also said his 12,000 patients would be hit by the move.
Shropshire County PCT, NHS Telford and Wrekin and the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust said: “We have reviewed all of the options for the 2012/13 and 2020 and carried out non financial and financial appraisals and the results will be considered at board meetings in September.
“No decisions have been taken and any proposals would of course have to be made subject to public consultation. The key concern is to ensure clinically safe services are provided.”
Mr Pritchard’s petition can be downloaded at www.markpritchard.com.
By Sam Pinnington
