Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what effect the Hospitals Transformation Programme will have on the treatment of trauma patients.

The Hospital Transformation Programme will consolidate accident and emergency (A&E) and trauma services at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, with an A&E Local in the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford. Trauma patients will benefit from earlier and improved access to specialist and multidisciplinary teams. There will be a reduced need for unnecessary secondary ambulance transfers and higher quality of care and better outcomes, including mortality rate and morbidity through reducing delays to appropriate care. Once patients are stable the model will also enable transfers to a location closer to home and the creation of a consolidated trauma service to attract and retain high quality workforce across the required specialities and at all staff levels.