The wife of a founding member of our Lingen Davies charity has said years of fundraising will have been in vain if some services for cancer patients are moved from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
Pat Davies, widow of Frank Davies who along with Bernard Lingen started the fund to help cancer patients in 1979, says she is very concerned about plans to transfer some cancer services to Telford.
Children’s services, including the Rainbow Unit which cares for youngsters with cancer, as well as head and neck surgery, will move to Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital under proposals being considered by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
But head and neck patients are one of the groups set to benefit from the latest Lingen Davies campaign which only weeks ago hit its £3.2million target for a dedicated cancer centre at the RSH.
Work on the new facility is due to start in the spring but now questions are being asked about the project, which will also provide improved facilities for chemotherapy and haematology patients.
The future of the Children’s Rainbow Unit, which was a product of a Lingen Davies campaign launched in 2002, is also in doubt.
Fundraisers are questioning the legality of the proposals to move services in light of the fact that the money was raised to provide the facilities at the RSH for patients from Shropshire and Mid Wales – and not to provide them in Telford.
Mrs Davies, a former nurse at the hospital, said: “The public needs to know it is proposed that all head and neck surgery moves to Telford; this is not what was the ‘vision’ of Bernard Lingen and Frank Davies when they established the fund, or what the people of Shropshire and Mid Wales intended when donating to the fund.
“The Lingen Davies campaign was specifically started to improve facilities for cancer patients and their families at Shrewsbury Hospital, some of whom have to travel long distances from Mid Wales. We have superb cancer facilities in Shrewsbury that have been funded by money local people have donated thinking it was for Shrewsbury’s cancer unit and now they’re going to break it up.
“I have had lots of people contacting me asking what’s happening to the new centre now that the target has been reached. I want to know what the £3.2million is going to be spent on if head and neck facilities are being moved,” she added.
Dot Garrett, who has been a staunch supporter of the Lingen Davies Appeal for more than 20 years, said she was appalled at plans.
“A large portion of money raised for the Children’s Rainbow Unit came from this area, so why should this now be put in jeopardy by some health planners who are giving no consideration to the extreme effort made to keep an up-to-date facility in Shrewsbury. The centre was built with public not government money and the general public should be entitled to a say.”
This week trustees of the Lingen Davies campaign met Adam Cairns, chief executive of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
Dr Barbara Marsh, chairman of the charity’s board, said: “The trustees strongly re-iterated to him our concerns that there should be no deterioration in the provision for children with cancer.
“Mr Cairns said that he recognised the present Rainbow unit is highly regarded by parents and assured us that the provision for children with cancer would continue to be of a high quality. He assured us that the future provision of facilities would at least match those at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (which he saw as setting the standard of care), and in some areas may exceed that currently provided.”
Dr Marsh added that the current appeal for the new cancer centre at the RSH was progressing well, with the hospital trust preparing to submit plans to Shropshire Council for planning permission.
No one from the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust was available for comment.
By Anna Williams