NHS4All - Timeline

Timeline

Plans to change hospital services at the Princess Royal and Royal Shrewsbury Hospitals (once called Future Fit) have been in the pipeline for many years.

A summary of the decisions made so far can be found in this timeline.

Date	Information
March 2014	Future Fit programme launches to review the health system across Shropshire with three options, a single emergency centre at either site or a newly built hospital somewhere else in the county.
September 2014	£28m purpose-built women and children’s centre opens at Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
May 2015	Proposals for hospital transformation are delayed by a general election and the need for clarity around Government funding plans.
October 2015	Proposals for hospital transformation are put on hold over concerns about the finances of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and Shropshire’s Clinical Commissioning Group.
November 2016	NHS Future Fit board recommend that the A&E at Princess Royal is downgraded and women and children’s services are moved to Shrewsbury.
December 2016	Clinical Commissioning Groups refuse to back plans to downgrade A&E services in Telford in favour of one emergency and trauma department in Shrewsbury, asking for an independent review.
February 2017	Health leaders in Shropshire agree to commission an independent review into the NHS Future Fit programme with KPMG being appointed in June 2017.
August 2017	NHS Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups Future Fit joint committee agree that their preferred option is to downgrade A&E at the Princess Royal and for women and children’s services based in Shrewsbury.
March 2018	The Government agree to pay £312 million towards plans which would see Telford’s A&E downgraded and maternity and other women’s services moved to Shrewsbury.
May 2018	Community are consulted on plans. Two thirds of respondents disagreed with moving emergency care to Shrewsbury. Just over half of respondents lived in and around Telford.
January 2019	Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups approve plans which will see the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford lose its 24 hour A&E and consultant-led women and children’s services to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
July 2019	Independent panel review plans and make recommendations to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
October 2019	Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock confirms that Future Fit plans moving emergency care to Shrewsbury would go ahead.
February 2020	Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups say work on the scheme has paused due to the COVID 19 Pandemic.
October 2021	NHS England and NHS Improvement receive the Strategic Outline Business Case from Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust. The proposals are understood to have cost around £500 million.
January 2022	NHS England and NHS Improvement send proposals back to the Trust to come up with a cheaper option for change which meets the original £312 million allocation.
June 2022	Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, confirms that the Department for Health and Social Care has received an outline plan for the Future Fit programme which is being reviewed.
August 2022	Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals NHS Trust confirm the approval of the Strategic Outline Business Case by the Government and the NHS England Investment Committee.
September 2022	Some detail from the Strategic Outline Business Case is published. It is confirmed that plans to overhaul the county’s main hospitals will not include all the work originally intended due to cost.