Glyn Davies, Conservative MP for Montgomeryshire, has condemned North Wales Labour politicians Susan Elan Jones MP and Ken Skates AM, for ‘untruthfully’ labelling the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals (SATH) NHS Trust as ‘high risk’.
Susan Elan Jones and Ken Skates, Labour MP and AM for Clwyd South, have written an open letter to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, in which they have incorrectly undermined SATH by stating it is classified as a ‘high risk Trust.
Glyn Davies MP said:
“It was unacceptable behaviour by North Wales Labour politicians Susan Elan Jones MP and Ken Skates AM to undermine the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospitals with untrue and ill-informed statements. They should not be going around describing the hospitals that serve mid Wales as “high risk” when they are not. It is somewhat ironic that a letter that levels criticism at the Secretary of State for Health about accuracy makes such a blunder itself by using out of date information and not checking the facts.
“The Care Quality Commission’s ‘Hospital Intelligence Monitoring’ in England uses more than 150 different indicators for its bandings, ensuring that assessments and comparisons of hospital trust performances are as thorough as possible. This transparency is absent in Wales. It would be interesting to see how Welsh hospitals would perform against these stringent measures. There are ‘high risk’ hospital trusts in England – but Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust is not one of them.
“A huge effort goes into delivering hospital care that wins a favourable report on performance, always a great credit to the dedicated doctors and nurses who work in the hospitals. The Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal at Telford deliver most secondary care to mid Wales. The staff in these hospitals will have been offended by the comments of these two ill-informed politicians.
“Perhaps they might consider a public apology”
