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Health Secretary agrees to meet Shropshire MPs over local NHS crisis
31 Jan 2023
The Health Secretary has agreed to meet with Shropshire’s MPs to address the county’s emergency care crisis after being challenged by Helen Morgan in Parliament.
Helen, the Lib Dem MP for North Shropshire, highlighted the huge ambulance waiting times and intense pressure on Shropshire A&Es in an exchange with Secretary of State Steve Barclay in the House of Commons on Monday.
She called on the Health Secretary to meet with her and other Shropshire MPs to address the crisis which has led one local doctor to describe A&E as “like a warzone”.
It comes after Shropshire was given the lowest amount from the Government’s emergency winter discharge fund despite having some of the worst bed-blocking rates in the country. In recent months around one in five hospital beds in Shrewsbury and Telford have been filled by patients fit enough to be discharged.
Meanwhile, in December, 8,000 of ambulance hours were lost due to paramedics having to wait to handover patients to the emergency departments in Shrewsbury and Telford.
The longest wait for a Category 2 call in Shropshire was 22 hours and 29 minutes and the average wait in the Oswestry area for Category 2 was more than two hours, despite the target response time being 18 minutes. Category 2 calls include patients who have suffered suspected heart attacks and strokes.
Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, said:
“Shropshire has some of the longest ambulance and A&E waiting times in the country so I’m glad the Health Secretary has agreed to meet with me and other local MPs to discuss how this situation can be improved.
“Seriously ill patients in Shropshire wait far longer for ambulances and A&E treatment than patients elsewhere in the country, so it’s really important the Government recognises the extreme local pressure when it comes to tackling the wider NHS crisis.
“Our hospital wards, GP surgeries and care homes have been crying out for help for months and months and months. Hopefully Steve Barclay will now listen and start providing the long overdue support that Shropshire’s beleaguered NHS needs.”
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Notes
Speaking in the House of Commons, Helen Morgan MP said:
“The urgent care and ambulance crisis has been brewing since autumn 2021 in Shropshire, and it's worsened since then. Last week, a doctor went on the record to say that the emergency department was like a warzone and that she feared that in a fire not everyone would get out alive.
“In a six-week period to the 12th of January a Category 2 response time in the Oswestry area was 2 hours and 10 minutes.
“So will the Secretary of State acknowledge that in some areas, the crisis is worse than others? And will he agree to meet with me, and the other MPs representing Shropshire, to discuss how we progress Shropshire further along this track to solve the urgent care crisis that is so serious there?”
Health Secretary Steve Barclay responded:
“I'm very happy to meet with the honourable lady and colleagues to discuss further. I think most people recognise that since there's huge pressures from flu over the Christmas period those flu numbers have come down. But of course, there is continued pressure in the system.”
Sources
The full breakdown of how the £200m hospital discharge fund has been allocated is available here. Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin received £1.75 million – less than any other area.
Shropshire ambulance response times and handover delays are taken from the latest West Midlands Ambulance Service board report.
Oswestry ambulance response times are from data provided directly by WMAS to Helen Morgan MP.
The bed-blocking rate refers to the rate of beds filled by patients medically fit for discharge and is available from the NHS here.
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