Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the impact of the Hospitals Transformation Programme on ambulance delays for heart attack and stroke patients in Shropshire.

Plans for the Hospitals Transformation Programme will provide a new consolidated Emergency Department at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Cardiology and acute stroke services will be co-located with the Emergency Department, ensuring immediate access to relevant specialties. As set out in the ‘Transforming the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital: Strategic Outline Case’, the Trust expects this change to significantly reduce delayed ambulance handovers. As now, patients indicating an acute heart attack will continue to be taken to the specialist heart attack centres at New Cross Hospital (Wolverhampton) and Royal Stoke Hospital.