LAST week I was invited by Ludlow Town Council to attend a public meeting with local NHS leaders to discuss local health issues.

I was pleased to agree to come to the meeting, having spoken at the well-attended League of Friends of Ludlow Hospital AGM, and chaired a Ludlow Health Forum meeting in August.

I sought to listen to concerns and dispel myths where I could, and announced I would be chairing the next Ludlow Health Forum, which I hope also can be used as a workshop to gain local feedback on emerging proposals, including the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP).

The Sustainability and Transformation Plan for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin sets out how local NHS bodies will put in place a range of clinically and financially sustainable services by 2020/21. This STP is being led by the NHS locally, and will go to NHS England in mid-October, who will review its content, and subject to their approval, will then go forward for public consultation starting in December.

The key challenges of the plan involve remodelling healthcare to fit the needs of patients today and in the future. This includes providing more care in the community, to help relieve pressure on our hospitals, removing duplication, and continuing to deliver the quality service patients expect.

This plan will incorporate the Future Fit work to secure safe care for Shropshire. Given the demographic and geographic challenges of serving the whole county, I made my view clear that if there is to be a single A&E centre, this should be at Shrewsbury, and I shall be studying the recommendations coming out this week with care.

It is quite right that the proposals should be subject to full public scrutiny, and now that the recommendations will be publicly available, which they were not at the meeting held last week, the Ludlow Health Forum will have an important role to play.

I will chair the next meeting on November 9 at Ludlow Assembly Rooms from 4.30pm to 6pm. It will be fully open to the public, and those with the power to make decisions over our local NHS will answer questions on making Shropshire's health services fit for the changing needs of the 21st century. So I encourage residents to come to the next meeting of the Ludlow Health Forum to get a better sense of what this plan means for our community.