Letter: Questions over A&E
For the last 12 to 18 months accident and emergency departments have been at full stretch across the country and very often unable to cope so a future fit committee was appointed to sort out the Shropshire problems.
They came up with three solutions:
To build a brand-new A&E department situated somewhere between Shrewsbury and Telford.
To close one of the existing A&E departments and concentrate on the other.
To remain as it is the present with two A&E departments operating at Shrewsbury and Telford.
The first proposal, although it has been asked to be looked at again is a non-starter due to the costs, with many many millions of pounds to be spent on the build and also further millions of pounds to be spent on infrastructure of roads and the requirement of a rail station to service this proposal.
The second proposal is typical of committees set up to resolve the problem of not been able to provide enough cover to meet demand. In my world when you cannot meet service demands you have to increase the provision. However, it seems when demands cannot be made then you reduce the provision. I don't know what universe these people live in but they don't live in the same universe as me.
The third provision is what the population of Shropshire and Telford want and require is a service that is provided on two sites that can be accessed reasonably from most parts of Shropshire.
Those making these decisions do not have the problems that a lot of the population experience, they usually have access to their own transport be able to take time away from work without loss of pay to visit those of their family who have unfortunately been rushed in to the local A&E. Also there is the ability of poorer families to find £20 or £30 for a taxi to take them to the A&E.
The argument used that we have to provide service for those in Wales must only be used when we can provide a comprehensive cover for Shropshire. I and hundreds of other Shropshire residents would have no problem in campaigning for facilities to be provided by the Welsh National Health Service to cover their needs.
We talk about The National Health Service, but this is not true. There is an English NHS, a Welsh NHS and a Scottish NHS. Maybe it is time that we had one NHS for Great Britain, demanding the same quality of service – whether you live in the depths of Wales or in one of the major cities.
Robert Murray, Sutton Hill
