IT is with some disgust and despair that I read a Facebook entry from the doctors of the Portcullis Surgery in Ludlow that Ludlow Hospital is to lose one of its two wards with almost immediate effect.
With a growing population, Ludlow is receiving very little thought or planning for its future. It seems to me that the people who decide health care matters do not particularly care what Ludlow is left with after they are long gone from their position of power. I assume they will be able to afford private care or live within a very short distance of a hospital where their relatives can easily visit.
It seems to me that the old Conservative mantra of 'we are all in this together' is rather unequal in reality. Many hundreds of people will eventually have to find the means of travelling to Telford or Shrewsbury for treatment or to visit, many are already doing so. Many of these people will not own cars or drive. No one likes to travel by bus or train when poorly and feeling less than 100%.
The hospital has recently been given or promised new equipment by the Friends of Ludlow Hospital which may turn out to be unused and an insult to the generosity of both givers and volunteers who collectively raised the money.
I personally look to Philip Dunne MP to bring this matter to the prime minister’s attention. Does he believe that reducing the rapidly declining number or effectiveness of hospitals is going to achieve better care? Does he relish the idea of travelling by bus or train? Oh, I forgot he would never have to, now or in the future.
Will we in Ludlow all be travelling to Birmingham when it is eventually decided it is just too expensive to have a Shropshire hospital at all?
RALPH BEARDMORE
Steventon Crescent, Ludlow