Update: 31 July 2015
The petition has now closed with 2,666 signatures. That’s a really great response in just a few days. It shows how passionate people are about our town.
Main article: 28 July 2015
Please sign the petition to reverse the decision to close the Stretton Ward at Ludlow Hospital and share it with friends.
The shock decision to close one of two remaining wards at Ludlow hospital is reverberating around Ludlow and South Shropshire. People are angry that Stretton Ward is being closed at just one weeks’ notice without consultation. But mostly they are angry that the ward is being closed at all. It will reduce the number of beds available in Ludlow from 40 to 24, despite the hospital having 97% bed occupancy last January (and last winter was a mild winter without a major flu outbreak).
Residents quite rightly see the closure as an autocratic move by a largely unaccountable NHS trust. They are spot on in saying that this move is a bad omen for the future of Ludlow hospital.
People are angry too about the way the news was released. The announcement was made late on a Friday, as people joined traffic jams and queued for flights to get away for the summer. The news was slipped out under the spin-doctored headline: “Bringing inpatient services together at Ludlow Hospital”. It was timed so that it the story would get no local press coverage on Monday. The closure announcement was made when many local GPs are on leave. Fortunately, local GP Dr Caroline Beanland was available to spoke passionately to Radio Shropshire about the closure yesterday morning:
It turns out that the Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which provides funds for Ludlow Hospital, had no clue that Stretton Ward was to be closed.
More than 1,500 people have now signed Dr Beanland’s petition. If you haven’t already done so, please sign the petition and share it with friends.
Andy Rogers , Marketting/Publicity man for Shropshire Community Trust has claimed there will be ‘no loss of beds’ with the move in the following, rather telling, way
‘We intend to move to the new arrangement on Friday 31st July, WHEN THERE WILL BE 24 BEDS
( my caps). On Saturday 1st August there will still be 24 beds’
Two weeks ago there were not 12 but 17 male patients on Stretton Ward. Clearly it has been contrived to get them home before ‘D-Day’ and reduce the number of beds to the Trust’s preferred number of 24. These are weasel words, and we actually pay these people to manipulate the truth to their own ends.
He also claims the idea came from the staff, so why slap a gagging order on them to stop them talking to the press or concerned members of the public?
They are called a Trust, sadly they cannot be trusted.
There is only one motive here: money. It is part of the cuts that are blighting every part of the community. It just happens that deviousness and cunning are involved too. This must be resisted as loudly and publicly as possible until we at least delay, if not reverse, this awful decision.
A ever rmoving target of spin/lies. Now it is a staff shortage that will reduce the beds by 60% 40 on Monday down to 24 beds on Tuesday on the hospital website. IF YOU CANT GET STAFF CHANGE THE MANAGEMENT..South Shropshire is an historically low wage area..but NHS staff have a national wage structure..