More names added to Shropshire-based 'Our NHS is in Crisis' petition
A call for a formal investigation into the causes of failing healthcare in Shropshire continues to gather support across the county.
A letter from campaigners was taken to a meeting of Oswestry Town Council by Sian Tasker, whose 92-year-old mother Glenys spent nine hours lying on the floor waiting for an ambulance last year.
Sian is backing the 'Our NHS is in Crisis' document which calls for action from the Government to further fund a hospital discharge programme which improved the flow of patients through the NHS system. It also requests a formal Care Quality Commission investigation into the situation in the county.
“It is a well-researched, dispassionate, not biased politically and which does not seek to apportion any blame,” Sian said.
“I felt it was time the North Shropshire and Oswestry people had the chance to support it.”
Oswestry Town Council decided it was up to individual councillors to decide whether or not to support the document.
Town mayor Councillor Jay Moore said he was only too please to be able to add his support.
“It is vitally important to look at all aspects of NHS care in the county,” he said.
Meanwhile, members of Bridgnorth Town Council have decided they won’t collectively sign a similar letter from ambulance campaigner Darren Childs, which has been widely circulated to town and parish councils and MPs across the county.
Mr Childs, a Ludlow councillor who was elected earlier this year after campaigning on the ambulance issue, has continued to be vocal about the crisis, which saw NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin declare a critical incident on Friday because of the “continued and unprecedented pressure" on its services.
A meeting of the town council voted not to sign the letter as part of a body, but send a letter saying they were sympathetic to the issues it raises and agreed individual town councillors could sign it if they so wished.
