Health group to meet over Shropdoc decision

Shropshire Defend Our NHS said it had organised a public meeting to take place in Ludlow tomorrow - Thursday, February 6.

The meeting, at the Assembly Rooms at 7pm, has been called by the group to 'support' Shropdoc, which has provided the county's out of hours services for a number of years.

It comes after the board of NHS Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, earlier this week confirmed it has selected a preferred provider for its out-of-hours contract.

They have selected a firm called Medvivo to take over the contract - but that decision still needs to go through a series of final hurdles before being signed off.

The situation means that it is likely that Shropdoc, the county's longstanding out-of-hours provider will no longer be providing the service.

Shropdoc itself has said it is unable comment on the developments until the procurement process is completed.

Daniel Robinson, CEO of Shropdoc, said: "As the procurement process is still active, we are unable to comment on the statement issued by NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin regarding the GP Out of Hours contract.

"We will issue a full response in due course."

Meanwhile, North Shropshire MP, Helen Morgan, has said she understood anxiety over the situation, and stressed that it is vital that whoever is awarded the contract provides high quality care.

She said: "Given the challenges facing the health service in Shropshire and Shropdoc's excellent reputation, it is completely understandable that patients are anxious about changes to out of hours provision.

"Whoever is providing out-of-hours care, they must ensure that high-quality patient care is the top priority."