This week, Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals NHS Trust announced further progress in the transformation for our acute hospitals, confirming Integrated Health Projects (IHP) as its design and construction partner.

IHP is a joint venture between contractors Vinci and Robert McAlpine.  IHP will help SaTH through the final stages of the national approval process, with preparatory works expected to start on the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital site from this month, with hoardings and site cabins erected.

The process to get to this point has been far too long. Any NHS investment worth over £50m requires approval by NHS England, the Department of Health & Social Care, and HM Treasury in order to proceed.

Earlier in January, we received confirmation that the Outline Business Case had been approved, and funding for enabling works approved by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England. A Full Business Case – the final stage in the national approval process – will be submitted soon, which will secure the full £312m investment available to complete the transformation.

While the administrative hurdles have been burdensome, I have been more frustrated by the delays that some have placed in the way of the project for political reasons. The transformation plans have been developed by clinicians in Shropshire, and I fought hard to get the £312m funding required from government.

This is the largest ever investment in Shropshire’s healthcare system. And yet no sooner had the funding been announced than some local campaigners and some politicians were decrying the plans. Even now, the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, will not commit to seeing them through.

By the time these plans come to fruition, I will have ceased to be your MP. So I have no personal political agenda around this programme – only a strong desire to see patient care improved for people across Shropshire, Telford, the wider Marches, and over the Welsh border who make use of our acute hospitals. 

Better services for planned care from Telford will mean fewer cancellations and delays for operations, while maintaining urgent care 24/7 there for the vast majority of those conditions treated at A&E. An improved Emergency Department at Shrewsbury will mean patients will be seen more quickly, with shorter stays and faster ambulance handover times. What’s more, we will finally address the working conditions that have made it so difficult to recruit qualified clinicians to Shropshire.

This latest news should serve as confirmation to all who use our county’s acute hospitals, as well as those who have tried to scupper this programme, that this huge investment in healthcare in Shropshire is going ahead.