HEALTH is by far the biggest issue on the agenda of the people of Ludlow and has been for a long time.

The town has had to come to terms with the broken dream of losing its promised £27 million new hospital and health village on the Eco Park following Government changes to the NHS.

There are now many questions marks about the future of the existing hospital.

The review of the future of health services in Ludlow and south Shropshire will hopefully answer many of the questions but this process that many people believe is a sham keeps getting put back.

People in Ludlow and south Shropshire are frightened because for many of them care and especially acute care is a long way away.

Of course, from time to time the very best of organisations will have an isolated hiccup but when it comes to services like ambulances a hiccup could be a life lost. Readers of this newspaper will be aware of some of the problems with ambulance services.

One of the institutions at the heart of the new NHS is the Clinical Commissioning Groups set up to procure services.

We now learn that former Ludlow GP Dr Caron Morton has stood down from the leadership of our local CCG but all that is being said is that she is on ‘authorised leave’ so we have no idea when or if she will return to post.

In one way having clinicians in administrative posts might make sense but on the other hand when the state trains, at huge cost, doctors, nurses and medical professionals surely they need to be in the surgery and in our hospitals caring for patients and not pushing pens.