Tory fiasco over NHS 'apology' letter

Last Modified: 22 Aug 2007
By: Channel 4 News

The Tories take back their apology over naming Telford maternity ward as an at risk service.

When the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford heard the Tories were claiming its maternity services were at risk it emailed David Cameron. Eventually the hospital received a reply from Cameron's staff apologising for the error - and saying it would be rectified immediately.

That was yesterday afternoon, but it didn't become public until earlier today. Labour chipped in to say the Tories should also apologise to other hospitals for their "scaremongering" tactics.

After a ring-round we found that 12 hospitals on the Tories' at-risk list (the party has claimed that at least 29 district general hospitals face "losing" accident and emergency or maternity units) disputed Cameron's claims.

But no sooner than the Tories' critics had descended, the party had made a surprising u-turn.

We're not sorry after all

This lunchtime the Conservative party announced that the email apologising to Telford should never have been sent.

A Tory spokesman said: "Our researcher was wrong to say there was an error. There is still a threat to Telford."

Despite the earlier brouhaha the Tories said they would be standing by their original claim that the hospital's services were under threat.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "I understand that no decisions have been made in relation to Telford but that future reconfiguration affecting services in that hospital are continuing. On that basis it was not correct for my researcher to apologise for its inclusion.

Telford hospital is now incandescent and insists the claim is not correct.

Yesterday, Tom Taylor, chief executive of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said there was "no threat" to its Wrekin Maternity Unit at the Princess Royal Hospital.

"We reviewed our maternity services as part of last year's Strategic Service Plan," he said.

"At that time we agreed that we should continue with the current model of care. That commitment has not changed."