PATIENT data from both of Shropshire’s main hospitals is being analysed as part of “Future Fit” business case preparations, a report says.

The reorganisation, which has been rebranded as the “Hospital Transformation Programme”, will see the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) house the county’s main accident and emergency centre with Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) taking responsibility for planned care.

Work to prepare the outline business case was paused because of the coronavirus pandemic but, in a report, CCG deputy executive for planning and commissioning Angela Parkes writes that it is back as a “high-level priority”.

She writes that a “clinical audit” of patients being admitted to the PRH and RSH is ongoing “to assess likely avoidable admissions to test the modelling assumptions” underpinning the case.

In her report, Ms Parkes writes that the Acute and Specialist Programme Board met last month and identified five priorities.

The Hospital Transformation Programme is one, and the others are the overhauls of maternity provision, cancer treatment, musculoskeletal treatment and elective care.

“The hospital transformation programme is a long-standing local priority that will enable more effective use of resources across the system, deliver improved patient outcomes and deliver improved facilities, leading to increased staff recruitment and retention,” she writes.

“The workstream aims to develop a system-wide clinical strategy.

“This will provide a basis on which a robust OBC (outline business case) can be developed for the acute services within the county.

“The focus of the programme since the restart has been on updating the modelling assumptions. A clinical audit of patients being admitted to Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust [hospitals] is being undertaken to assess likely avoidable admissions to test the modelling assumptions.”

An NHS Improvement document, titled “Modelling and Simulation” says healthcare providers can use statistical tools “to help examine variation in the supply and demand of services”. It adds: “These tools are particularly useful if you are considering making long-term or significant changes, the impact of which can be difficult to predict.”

Ms Parkes’s report will be discussed by the county’s Clinical Commissioning Group Joint Strategic Commissioning Committee when it meets remotely on Wednesday, October 21.