SICK children in Ludlow and south Shropshire will continue to be treated seven days a week in Shrewsbury.

It means that the services will not move to Telford where the Women’s and Children’s Centre opens at the end of September.

Children Assessment Units, like the one in Shrewsbury, are different from accident and emergency services and are primarily used for GP referrals, blood tests, observations and certain investigations.

“The Clinical Commissioning Group is pleased that children in Shropshire will continue to have access to high-quality care every day of the week at a dedicated unit in Shrewsbury,” said Dr Caron Morton, a former Ludlow GP and accountable officer for the Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Peter Herring, chief executive of The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said that the changes envisaged are for the better.

“Children's services for people in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and mid Wales are changing for the better with the new Shropshire Women and Children's Centre opening at the end of September.

"This is a wonderful new facility that we can all be proud of. But, with great new facilities opening in Telford it is also vitally important that parents right across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and mid Wales can all be confident about where to take a child when they are suddenly and unexpectedly taken very poorly,” he said.

"When the new centre opens in Telford there will be a Children's Assessment Unit seven days a week in Shrewsbury where children's doctors and nurses can offer tests, diagnosis and observation so that only those children who need inpatient care and other specialist services are admitted at the Shropshire Women and Children's Centre."

The Children’s Assessment Unity in Shrewsbury will continue to provide specialist children’s care seven days a week when the Shropshire Women and Children’s Centre opens in Telford at the end of September. It will provide services such as GP referrals, blood tests, observations and certain investigations.