Battle to fight cutbacks (From Ludlow Advertiser)

Battle to fight cutbacks

THE battle has begun to keep Ludlow's Community Hospital open.

As the Advertiser pledged its support to the "Save Ludlow Hospital" campaign, the prospect of closure sparked widespread condemnation across south Shropshire.

The axing of Ludlow and two other community hospitals in the county is one of the options in a report prepared for Shropshire's health trusts by a team of outside consultants.

The aim is to find ways of repaying an estimated £36 million of accumulated debts by March 2009 - to close Ludlow would save a mere £1 million.

Ludlow MP Philip Dunne immediately linked with Lib Dem district councillor Peter Corston to launch a petition. "This is an initiative that is far more important than party politics," said Mr Dunne.

His group collected 400 signatures in Ludlow's Market Square last Saturday. District council members from both parties are to embark on blanket coverage of households in south Shropshire to collect as many signatures as possible.

Mr Dunne said: "The critical importance of community hospitals in the county cannot be overstated."

Coun Corston, who fought successfully in the mid-1980s to reopen the hospital's maternity unit, called the move "yet another blow to the rural areas that we represent". He added: "We must have a full breakdown of the costings of the process."

The issue will be top of the agenda at next Wednesday's quarterly meeting of the League of Friends of Ludlow Hospital. The meeting is at 6.30pm in the physiotherapy department. Committee member Pat Hansen said: "We hope the NHS Trusts will ignore the recommendation and instead look for more efficient ways of managing their budgets."

The Friends are especially concerned about more than 40 patients in the Clee and Stretton wards as well as sufferers from senile dementia and Alzheimer's in Whitcliffe Ward.

"Patients in Ludlow Hospital feel at home," Mrs Hansen said. "They often know the nursing and domestic staff and our own volunteers, who are local people. Move them to an urban hospital and this interaction with familiar faces would cease."

Liz Griffin, editor of the Advertiser, commented: "The availability of a local hospital is essential for a community the size of Ludlow.

"The Ludlow Community Hospital is a vital resource, which has proved its value to residents over and over again. Closure will have a devastating effect on many people, especially the elderly and less able. The Advertiser will do everything in its power to retain this facility, and any other that is under threat, for the people of Ludlow."

The hospital has been in existence since 1948. A survey of patients in 1985 showed that its three favourite features were kindness of staff, nursing care and nearness to home.