‘We’ve got some way to go’: Shropshire health bosses say changes are underway following hard-hitting TV documentary
Changes have been made following a hard-hitting documentary on the state of the county’s emergency departments, health bosses say.
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Representatives from Shropshire and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) re-iterated apologies for failings highlighted in Channel 4’s Dispatches programme aired in June – but said the programme had not revealed anything they did not already know.
The trust issued an apology immediately following the documentary, which showed footage of patients being treated in corridors in overcrowded emergency departments, with others facing long waits in a treatment and waiting area known as ‘Fit to Sit’.
Dr John Jones, Medical Director at SaTH, told a joint health scrutiny committee at Shirehall on Wednesday (August 7) that he “completely understood” how alarming the programme was for patients and residents in the county.
“We don’t consider the things seen on that acceptable either. I just wanted to make that really clear at the beginning,” he said.
“We know we have overcrowded departments, and we know we have used corridors, and we know that in order to lower the risk of patients waiting in ambulances we have used areas that were not set up for caring for patients.
