Shrewsbury GPs Proposed Changes

15/05/2023

So, another stumble. We were told not so long ago by the ICB that, despite uncertainty about the funding for Edith Cavell centres, work would continue on preparing the business case. Now, the plan has finally been shelved. This is a good outcome for all the people who opposed siting 6 GP practices under one roof, even if it is the withdrawal of funding which has really put the kybosh on the project. We have a government which is simply not prepared to invest in our NHS or indeed much other vital infrastructure
In England.
The ICB says it will have to come up with something else now as many of the issues which led to the proposal are still there, so we all need to keep our ears to the ground. Yes, there are too few GPs and indeed other allied professions who support primary care. Yes, a number of aspects of the organisation of primary care are in dire need of reform, for instance, the reliance on GPs owning practice buildings. Yes, people have been living longer with more frailty and ill health ( though the trend has reversed a bit after almost 15 years of austerity). But, despite at least 2 major reforms of the health service, bringing first the clinical commissioning groups and now the integrated care boards, why do most of us feel that there is NO strategic direction or planning and that the real issues are not being tackled?
What do you think? What should be done to improve GP services in town? Which issues need to be tackled at national/ regional level and what can be achieved locally?

NHS bosses are facing 'huge disappointment' after shelving controversial plans to merge six doctors' surgeries into a health "super hub".

27/03/2023

The scheme in Shrewsbury is now unlikely to go ahead until the next government spending review.

Full story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-65079885

26/03/2023

The ICB are saying it is too early to say whether they will go ahead with the consultation. They confirmed that they would when I asked them at the Health and Adult Social Care (HASC) scrutiny meeting in January. Look at their papers for the HASC meeting tomorrow. This looks like they fully intend to go ahead with their plans for a super hub https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/health/2023/03/26/call-for-alternatives-to-shrewsbury-health-hub-plan-to-be-explored-after-funding-blow/

25/03/2023

Not sure this is the end of the story as there was also news from the Star that there are still discussions going on about the future of primary care in town but Cavell centres kicked into the long grass.

Well, good heavens. One of those very few occasions when the financial crisis in the NHS leads to a good outcome. The Shrewsbury GP Hub is no more!

The ludicrous plan for primary care in Shrewsbury was that most GP surgeries would close, with the services all bundled in together on a single site in South Shrewsbury. There was a great deal of secrecy and minimal accountability. Shrewsbury people – quite rightly – pointed out that reducing access to primary care is a really stupid thing to do. If you’re 90 and you need to get your leg ulcer dressed, then having to hop on a couple of buses to see your practice nurse and another couple of buses to get home is a significant deterrent to accessing health care. Many people got this straight away. A lot of local councillors understood it very well. Sadly, local health leaders just thought ‘Ooh, here’s a pot of money, let’s grab it.’

The money’s gone, NHS England has pulled the plug, and the ‘health hub’ in South Shrewsbury is unlikely to go forward. For Shrewsbury people, that’s the best outcome there could be. Sharply reducing access to primary care is NOT in the interests of Shrewsbury people.

(The screenshot is from Health Service Journal).

01/02/2023

Members of the public and patients will not have a say where Shrewsbury's new health hub will be located, health leaders have confirmed.

01/02/2023

And the Star story. Punishment for asking too many questions and objecting to the plans!?

Members of the public and patients will not have a say where Shrewsbury's new health hub will be located, health leaders have confirmed.

01/02/2023

Latest news on the health hub. Busted flush. And yet according to the Star, which we will post too, the ICB is still going to proceed with finding a site but guess what, we don’t get a say anymore!
https://www.facebook.com/CllrKateHalliday/

This is the page for Kate Halliday, Labour Party Cllrs for Belle Vue Ward, Shropshire Council and Shrewsbury Town Council, promoted by Kieth Hudson on behalf of Shrewsbury Labour Party, all at Morris Hall, Bellstone Shrewsbury SY1 1JB

17/11/2022

So a report from Plymouth, one of the 6 towns/ cities due to have an ‘Edith Cavell’ health hub, suggesting the pot of money is no longer available. Watch this space! The ICB is being asked to comment.

Dr Richard Ayres was part of the team that won backing for the West End Health and Wellbeing Hub and was stunned when NHS funding was not given

01/11/2022

A Legal Challenge?
We're hearing that a group of patients, concerned about the quality of the 'engagement' process, are wondering whether the proposals for the hub meet the legal criteria for such large-scale changes to NHS services. It appears that the decision about merging the 6 practices together has already been made ( see below) and the public will not be consulted on this aspect of the hub. So the public will only be consulted on the potential service model for the 6 surgeries in the hub. The group would like to get legal advice on whether the engagement process and the consultation should be challenged. We know that some of the most concerned patients are those without private means of transport and on low incomes, and may well be claiming Universal Credit. If you are on UC, you are entitled to Legal Aid so those affected by the proposals who are on Universal Credit can launch a challenge via Legal Aid. If this is something you, or someone you know, may be interested in please direct message us via this page.

01/11/2022

Oh, dear, really a non story. Clearly the ICB is very attached to locating the super hub at Otley Road so have to say they can’t ‘rule out’ providing a bus service to it, and then in the next breathe, add that a bus service in Crewe only lasted 6 months as it wasn’t being used. They are trying to wear down opposition, aren’t they?
https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/health/2022/10/31/nhs-could-provide-bus-services-for-super-gp-hub/
https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/health/2022/10/31/nhs-could-provide-bus-services-for-super-gp-hub/

Health bosses say they won't rule out providing bus services to get patients to a planned super GP hub.

30/10/2022

Many of you will have spotted this story in the Star. The ICB is sticking to its story that the single large health hub is the only option but they are continuing to review site options. Feedback from the public is that there is concern about both the site at Otley Road and about this mega practice on one site - no one seriously believes that the eventual outcome won't be the practices losing their separate identity - a suspicion so well illustrated by the response to the G.P. Lead, Dr Charlotte Hart's, reply to a question about this at the public meeting.
David Sandbach ( Ex CEO Princess Royal Hospital) continues to come up with other suggestions and challenge the ICB line. We have a 17 page document from him, private message us if interested to see what he is suggesting.

The controversial plan to move six GP surgeries into a super hub is the “only value for money option” for the future of the town’s GP services.

19/10/2022

Thank you, Kate. Confirmation of what we suspected. Neither the Council nor the Integrated Care Board prepared to fund the necessary additional transport links to make the preferred site accessible.

I asked the ICS Board if they would commit to funding buses to the preferred hub site now the council have confirmed that they will not do so. I have had my answer back - this looks like a 'no' to me. I think it would be unacceptable to have such a large GP surgery with so many patients without adequate public transport.