Shropshire Councillors are concerned that Stuart Anderson, the new MP for South Shropshire, is trying to revive plans for a new community hospital on the outskirts of Ludlow. These plans were abandoned more than a decade ago as unaffordable. Whether that was the right decision or not, the focus in recent years has been on maintaining services in the existing hospital not directing effort to unachievable projects. Tracey Huffer, Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow East picks up the story:
“There was a lot of disappointment when plans for a community health hub on Ludlow Eco Park were cancelled in 2013. The then Clinical Commissioning Group, a committee of Shropshire GPs, said it would never have attracted enough patients and provided wide enough range of treatments to justify the £24 million cost (£35 million today).
“What we were promised instead of the new hospital was more investment in the existing community hospital in East Hamlet. The commitment was repeated under Future Fit, the plans to modernise acute and community health services across the county. That commitment has disappeared without trace.
“Instead of improving services in Ludlow, the health authorities have stripped services back. Two wards are closed at Ludlow Community Hospital and some services are no longer available locally.
“With the closure of wards, local patients being transferred from acute care at Shrewsbury, Telford or Hereford are being given beds some distance away. One patient was even given a bed in Whitchurch, 50 miles away.
“Equipment purchased by the Friends of Ludlow Hospital seems to not now be in use and some of it is no longer in the hospital. The ultrasound scanner, purchased with funds from the League, is no longer in use. The Minor Injury Unit no longer opens 24×7 and is often shut at short notice. That means people with urgent but minor health issues are having to travel 30 miles to join the queues at the overcrowded A&Es at Hereford and Shrewsbury.
“The proposal for a new hospital at the Eco Park relied on both GP surgeries moving out of the town centre to the new facility. That move was controversial and since the proposal was scrapped, both surgeries have invested in expanding their buildings. It would be costly for them to disinvest from their current sites and GP services would be moved out of the heart of Ludlow.
“I am at one with Stuart Anderson on the urgent need to improve local healthcare provision in rural counties. But in calling for the proposal for a new hospital for Ludlow to be resurrected, Stuart Anderson is directing his energies to the wrong ends. He should focus on getting the existing hospital up to scratch. That means reopening wards, increasing the range of services available and ensuring adequate staffing.
“He would get everyone’s support in this and it would be a more achievable ambition.”
Hi Andy,
I hear what you are saying, but I am not sure you are right.
I think any position on this requires an engaged public consultation, perhaps a citizen’s jury reflecting the population from across South Shropshire and North Herefordshire.
My personal thoughts are that if we looked at a whole system (residents, environmental and local community and economy impacts, as well the NHS’s) costs and benefits there would be an overwhelming case for investment in a substantial range of integrated services being located in what would have to be a new South Shropshire location on the A49. The Eco Park is an obvious location. This would halp make Ludlow a much stronger regional ‘capital’ attracting greater inward investment.
The catchment area would include well over 100,000 people who would be able to get a very large proportion of their health services locally instead of having to travel long distances to Shrewsbury, Telford or Hereford. The inward investment and large number of quality jobs would be a major boost to the local economy and be significant counterbalance to the trend by SCC of focusing investment in Shrewsbury and help to give our rural region a much greater and more coherent identity with local services focussed on our needs.
We should, in my opinion work with our neighbouring market towns to explore what is perhaps the biggest opportunity there is to reverse the trend of local disinvestment and decline. We have plenty of local talent and knowledge to create a compelling case and we could build a powerful voice combing South Shropshire & North Herefordshire residents who at the moment are almost unheard in planning our future.
I’m afraid I think your try and hold on the what we have is a strategy that will inevitably see our continued decline. Our regions Town Councils and local MPs engaging and working with local residents groups and experts developing a bold and well presented strategy is our only hope for a prosperous future.
I do realise that consolidating our GP practices on the eco park would be more inconvenient for some Ludlow residents but their us already a good bus service which could be expanded and make our park and ride much more effective with many benefits. Also I am sure there could be a case for keeping some GP services in the town centre.
I will talk with the Ludlow Residents Group organisers to see what they/we think about this.
I agree that we should reverse disinvestment in the rural south but a new hospital is not the way to do it. It is not a good investment to build from scratch when there is so much space in the existing hospital which could provide the services we need. You model would suck in health services from the rest of the south leading to the closure of Bridgnorth and Bishop’s Castle hospitals. You can battle for the pipedream or work practically using existing places. That also is less expensive in carbon.
If there is not enough space in Ludlow Community Hospital, then Helena Lane is mostly empty and we are stuck with that building for a long while.
You will remember all the stress and angst over the initial plans for a new hospital, which were cancelled in 2013. It was Shropshire GPs that cancelled it because it was not affordable. We must draw services back to Ludlow but we must be able to afford them.
Ludlow had a very lucky escape when the new hospital hub was cancelled. We would now still be paying the large PFI finance bill and for many years to come. Shortly afterwards PFI’s were deemed unsustainable.
Please do not revive the idea Mr Anderson lets actually get East Hamlet working to it;s full potental instead.
Any new idea even junked ideas rehashed are welcome and all ideas should be put to the public not left in the hands of the commissioning authorities who have tried to get rid of local hospitals and services for years
I would think a new hospital with better access to the growing town of Ludlow outside Ludlow is a better idea with access off the A49 has to allow for better use and uptake from the community around Ludlow as the hospital would serve the wider community outside the town than in the town and would need to made expandable and give no excuse ( such as access) for the commissioning groups to continue to try and close a new on down he old hospital can then be converted into housing inside ludlow