Bosses 'determined' to build new Ludlow hospital

The ambitious scheme, which would also see the transfer of the town's two doctors surgeries to a new site, is currently hanging in the balance.

Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group voted to refuse a request to bail out the project by making good a £1.1 million annual funding shortfall for the next 25 years at a meeting last month.

The cash gap came about because of a difference in opinion over the amount of people who would actually be using the new site.

The future of the scheme will now be discussed at a meeting of Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust, the body in charge of the development, in Ludlow later this month.

Interim chief executive Julia Bridgewater said today: "We have already been clear that we are dedicated to community health services in Ludlow and we have also been clear that we will explore every possible option to make the current plan happen.

"We have asked a range of partner organisations, patient and community representatives, trust staff and other stakeholders that have a scrutiny role to help us work up potential solutions.

"We are looking at other areas of potential activity that could transfer into the new facility, which would attract income to help bridge the gap.

"We are also looking at the reconfiguration of the building and its technical specification to see if the cost of the project can be reduced that way."

The meeting will take place in the Plymouth Suite of Ludlow Racecourse at 9.30am on September 19.

Members of the public are invited to attend.