Civic leaders join health dispute
Saturday 7th October 2006, 9:53PM BST.
The county council’s cabinet has backed proposals by Shropshire’s primary care trust for a shake-up of mental health services.
The plans will include the closure of Whitcliffe ward, at Ludlow Community Hospital.
The decision has sparked anger among health campaigners in Ludlow.
Councillor Graeme Kidd, Ludlow’s mayor, said: “I am bemused by Shropshire County Council’s cabinet decision to offer support for the PCT’s proposals for mental health services, which are based around the closure of Whitcliffe ward at Ludlow Hospital.
“The county council has also offered ‘qualified support’ to the general in-patient service proposals for Ludlow put forward by the PCT.
“Given that the Ludlow Hospital League of Friends forwarded almost 6,000 completed PCT consultation forms to the PCT from local people who did not want closures at Ludlow Hospital, and given the fact that, on two occasions in Ludlow, thousands of people took to the streets in support of our hospital, I am stunned that a group of 10 county councillors, none of them representing a ward in South Shropshire, made this decision.”
Leader of South Shropshire District Council, Councillor Heather Kidd, added: “It would have been nice if the county council had asked someone from the district council, town council or Ludlow Hospital League of Friends to give evidence to them.”
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