Pressures at Shropshire hospital ‘a risk to life’

Pressures on Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust have been branded “a risk to life” after critical incident status was declared last week, with significant delays for patients needing treatment.

 

Pressure group Defend Our NHS reported that a 95-year-old woman recently endured a 14 hour wait inside an ambulance outside A&E.

 

The trust, which oversees Telford’s Princess Royal and Royal Shrewsbury hospitals, cited the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and “issues in discharging medically fit patients” as the source of the pressures.

 

A spokesperson from the trust said “Throughout the incident, we continued to ensure that patients were prioritised in line with clinical urgency and, although clearly not the way in which we strive to deliver care, all those waiting in ambulances continued to be constantly assessed and treated by highly-skilled medical professionals.”

 

Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, said it was “not acceptable for people in Shropshire to be left in this situation”, which she went on to say was “unsustainable”.

 

She said “There’s a risk to people’s health and, in the most extreme circumstances, there’s a risk to life.”

 

Ms Morgan said that she thought “management at SaTH have a good vision for care in the future, but I don’t think that’s going to come anything like soon enough to deal with the issue that we’ve got”.

 

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in medical negligence claims, providing support and guidance after life-changing events.  Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

 

If you believe that you or a relative may have been injured as a result of clinical/medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our medical negligence solicitors on the freephone number below.

 

Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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