A valuable resource for the entire community (From Ludlow Advertiser)

A valuable resource for the entire community

I AM writing to protest most vehemently against the proposed closure of Ludlow Community Hospital and two others in Shropshire.

My points are these:

l The local Community Hospital is the often crucial first point of contact with the NHS when anyone, a family or a person like myself who lives alone, needs help. In an area such as Ludlow access to healthcare, particularly for the elderly and for those in the surrounding areas will become a nightmare.

l At present, the Community Hospital provides a broad range of care for a variety of needs, including a much-valued maternity unit and a psychiatric ward for geriatric patients. They also provide accommodation for occasional clinics for a wide variety of visiting consultants. (This I have experienced personally with gratitude).

l The Community Hospital also provides emergency care in case of accidents and also follow-up physiotherapy sessions once the plaster is removed. (Both of these I experienced when I broke my arm in January 2004).

While visiting an elderly friend in one ward I recognised another person whom I knew slightly but did not know she was in hospital.

We had a chat and she told me that her family were physically unable to visit her. I offered to let her friends know which ward she was in. She brightened up considerably when they started to visit her regularly and was soon allowed home.

My point is that her friends, all in their 70s and 80s, had they eventually found out whether she was in Shrewsbury or Telford, would have had the utmost difficulty making such a journey once (a round trip of 60/70 miles by bus or train and taxi) let alone doing it more regularly.

Our community hospitals are being put into the firing line due to huge administrative failures in Shrewsbury and Telford. This is grossly unfair. Ludlow is a small town with an energetic and enterprising population.

We owe it to them and their children to see that in their everyday lives and eventually in their old age, they can rely on receiving care from their community hospital in their own community.

All cuts should take place, particularly at administrative level, in the two main transgressors, Shrewsbury and Telford.

J A Williams

Castle View Terrace

Ludlow