PEOPLE in a crowded hall at Ludlow School went away from a meeting that was at times full of anger, having failed to get any assurances about the future of the town’s community hospital.

Despite being repeatedly asked about any future cuts including loss of beds at the hospital, Dr Julian Povey, clinical head for the Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, would not give any assurances.

Gill George, who lives in Ludlow and heads the Defend our NHS in Shropshire group, had a bleak warning about the future.

“We are heading for a DIY approach to health and social care in south Shropshire,” she said.

“No matter how many volunteers we have, they are not going to be able to replace the £147.5 million savings being made in the local health budget.”

Dr James Harris, a GP at Ludlow’s Station Road Surgery, urged the meeting at Ludlow School, called by the Ludlow and Clee Local Joint Committee of Shropshire Council, not to forget that every day many people were well served by the NHS but he said that his patients are worried.

“Patients are anxious about the future and anxious about how health care will be delivered in the future,” he said.

Pat Hanson, a volunteer at Ludlow Hospital, said that more than half the beds at the hospital had been lost in the past 10 years including a ward specifically for elderly patients with mental health problems.

But Dr Julian Povey told the meeting that it is wrong to equate the number of beds with levels of care and told the meeting that the intention is to improve care in the community.

Councillor Cecilia Motley, who holds the portfolio for rural affairs on Shropshire Council, said that she recognised that there is a serious problem caused by the lack of public transport that makes it difficult for people who do not have their own vehicles to travel to places like Shrewsbury and Telford for treatment.

Philip Dunne, the MP for Ludlow and a Minister at the Department for Health, admitted that spending on health in the UK as a proportion of national income fell below countries like France and Germany but claimed that this country gets better value from the money it spends.

“We are about average when it comes to the 15 largest counties in the European Union,” said Philip Dunne.

He defended efficiency savings and said that in a large organisation like the NHS, with 1.3 million employees and more than 200 trusts, there would always be ways to spend money more efficiently.

Philip Dunne said that he was not directly involved in decision-making at a local level but he did comment on the future of Accident and Emergency services.

The MP said that he was clear that if there was to be only one Accident and Emergency Unit in Shropshire then it needs to be in Shrewsbury and not Telford.

He said that the next meeting of the Ludlow Health Forum that he chairs will be in November and that it will be a public meeting.