logo
Fewer patients waiting for planned surgery in Shropshire and Telford

Fewer patients waiting for planned surgery in Shropshire and Telford

BBC News24-07-2025
A hospital trust has said it has reduced the number of patients on its planned surgery waiting list by 20% in the past nine months.The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH), also said no children or young people had waited longer than a year for treatment.It said this was down to a series of improvements including a new theatres timetable, more outpatient appointments and new digital tools."It has been a whole team effort including theatres, anaesthetics and booking and scheduling colleagues," said Andrena Weston, from the trust.
The number of patients waiting more than a year for planned surgery had reduced by more than 75%, the trust added.The PRH worked from a new high intensity theatre list, which saw 11 hernia procedures take place in one day, while more than 5,500 people were treated in a new planned care hub at the site."This is positive news for our patients as we know that earlier access to routine treatment can lead to a better recovery and improved health outcomes, enabling them to get back to their daily lives as quickly as possible," said consultant surgeon Joe McCloud.
Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Boy, 5, rushed to hospital after plunging from a height as air ambulance responds & cops close street
Boy, 5, rushed to hospital after plunging from a height as air ambulance responds & cops close street

The Sun

time10 minutes ago

  • The Sun

Boy, 5, rushed to hospital after plunging from a height as air ambulance responds & cops close street

A FIVE-year-old boy has fallen from a height and been rushed to a major trauma centre. Paramedics raced to the scene, nearby Dagenham Headway Tube station, in east London, at around 2.30pm today. Church Elm Lane was cordoned off from Tasty kebab shop to Church Elm Lane Health Centre. Emergency services, including an air ambulance, arrived to transport the youngster to a major trauma centre. It is understood the boy's injuries are not life threatening. The Met Police confirmed there have been no arrests. A spokesperson for the force said: "Police were called at 14:32hrs on Monday, 4 August to reports of a child who had fallen from height in Church Elm Lane, Dagenham Officers, the London Ambulance Service and the London Air Ambulance attended. "A five-year-old boy was taken to hospital for treatment. His injuries are not life threatening. There have been no arrests." A London Ambulance Service spokesperson added: "We were called at 2.31pm today to reports of a person fallen from height on Church Elm Lane, Dagenham. "We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and a paramedic in a fast response car. "We also dispatched London's Air Ambulance. "Our first paramedic arrived in less than five minutes. We treated a child at the scene and took them to a major trauma centre by road." 1

I found it agonising to quit smoking. So why are people ignoring the new treatments on offer?
I found it agonising to quit smoking. So why are people ignoring the new treatments on offer?

The Guardian

time41 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

I found it agonising to quit smoking. So why are people ignoring the new treatments on offer?

If there was a five-minute nuclear warning, I'd run straight to my local shop and buy a pack of cigarettes. Even now, after all these years. I stopped more than a decade ago – note that I say 'stopped' rather than 'gave up' because the latter implies a sacrifice, and I have been brainwashed (OK, hypnotised) not to use the term. But you are never really a non-smoker. You are just a smoker who is currently not smoking. In your soul, you are forever one of the people who leave the table after eating to go and have a conversation outside, even if you physically stay put these days. So, as someone who found it difficult to quit, it's baffling to hear that although two stop-smoking medications have been available in the UK since 2024, only 0.2% of those attempting to give up have used them, according to an analysis of NHS data on smoking in England. Cytisine (which also goes by cytisinicline) is a plant-based product that has been used in eastern Europe since the 70s and may appeal to those who prefer a natural option over a synthetic drug. It mimics the effects of nicotine, and tricks your brain into thinking you've had a cigarette. Varenicline – withdrawn in 2021 over concerns about impurities, but now reformulated and rereleased – can apparently reduce the urge to smoke, make you enjoy it less when you do and ease withdrawal symptoms. I tried everything when it came to my struggle with Silk Cut. Patches, gum, lozenges – I carried on smoking while I wore, chewed and sucked them all. I read the world-famous success story The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr (no, not that one). I attended the NHS in-person sessions, three times, to no effect. I was a triple failure, and oddly proud of it for a reason I still don't quite understand. I had neurolinguistic programming, where the man shook my hand as he greeted me, asking, 'And how long was it that you smoked for?' 'Oh, I still smoke now. I just had one outside,' I volunteered cheerfully. He tutted and told me that for some clients, talking about smoking in the past tense like that was all it took. I scoffed at those weaklings as I walked to my train afterwards – in a cloud of smoke, obviously. The closest I came to victory back then was a hypnotist recommended by a friend, with the caveat that he sounded so much like Cliff Richard it was hard to take him seriously. She didn't mention that he worked out of an extremely insalubrious portable cabin at the back of a building site. As I knocked on the tin-can door (while simultaneously putting out yet another last ever cigarette), I reasoned that if he murdered me, I would technically have given up smoking, therefore this would have been a success. Reader, he did not murder me. In gentle, dulcet tones, he told me I felt sleepy, while I felt embarrassed for him because I definitely wasn't hypnotised. When he 'brought me round' he asked me how long I thought I'd 'been under'. I'd been thinking about what to have for dinner the whole time, so stifled a giggle as I told him: about 10 minutes. He replied that it had been two hours. The next morning, it occurred to me that I hadn't even thought about smoking, let alone done it. Thrilled, I sent another friend, who had the same experience. However, a year later, almost to the day, we both started smoking again. I went back for a do-over but it didn't work. In the end, I probably spent about as much on trying to stop smoking as I had on cigarettes, and the thing that finally worked was free: boring old willpower. It was agony. Personally, I would have bitten the doctor's hand off if they could have given me a treatment that worked. And while of course no treatment is 100% effective, as I found out, stopping smoking is hard and gruelling. The more options people have, and the more visible and accessible these options are, the better. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store