A LUDLOW GP has been told she is no longer needed at the hospital in the town after criticising of safety measures in the face of the Covid-19 virus.

Dr Catherine Beanland, a GP partner at Portcullis surgery, has been told her services are no longer required by Ludlow hospital, due to concerns raised by her to hospital managers regarding their lack of preparedness for Covid-19 according to a statement from Portcullis Surgery.

Dr Beanland, with the support of her team at Portcullis Surgery, has been leading the Ludlow’s response to the Covid-19 challenge having single handedly organised the ‘Pulling together Ludlow’ group as well as spending countless hours of her own time advising local groups of GP practice’s on their response provision.

As a Ludlow GP partner, along with her colleagues, she provides medical care to half of the patients on Dinham ward at Ludlow community hospital and has over recent weeks advised the trust on a number of occasions that she believes that their response with respect to the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff and appropriate isolation of possible Covid-19 patients has been dangerously lacking. The trust has been very slow to adopt these patient safety critical changes and today Dr Beanland was informed to no longer provide patient care on the hospital ward.

Because of the huge pressure on local GP services as a consequence of the Covid-19 outbreak Dr Beanland has been taking the extra step of wearing personal protective equipment to the hospital to try to protect the patients and prevent her catching the virus because of the significant impact this could make on the town’s provision of primary care but the Shropshire community trust stated she was not following national guidance and frightening both patients and staff by her use of the equipment on the ward.