Lease for Ludlow Hospital site not yet signed
A long-term lease to secure the future of Ludlow Hospital has still not been signed – a year since terms were drawn up.
Supporters of the hospital in Gravel Hill are demanding answers over the delay amid fears for the future of the site.
They have said people in the south of the county "cannot be complacent" that the hospital will not close, as it faces a range of threats.
Shropshire Defend Our NHS campaigners are due to confront health bosses about the issue outside a private meeting with Philip Dunne MP at Ludlow Mascall Centre next week.
Officials at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust have confirmed talks over the 10-year lease are ongoing. In February last year health chiefs said the lease agreement was on the verge of being signed and the terms had been broadly agreed.
The lease has been sought ever since plans for a new multi-million pound hospital at the town's Eco Park fell through in 2013. Tracey Huffer, Shropshire councillor for Ludlow East and herself a nurse at the town's Station Drive Surgery, said there was still widespread concern over the future of Ludlow Hospital.
In July last year the hospital's two wards were merged into one due to a nursing shortage. Jan Ditheridge, the health trust's chief executive, said it was a temporary measure, but Councillor Huffer said eight months on nothing has changed.
She said: "We still only have one ward open. You have to question why that lease still hasn't been signed. We can't be complacent, they're chipping away at things at Ludlow Hospital. They said if it became apparent there was a need for more beds they would reopen more, but what they're trying to say is we don't need more than 24 beds."
The debate was over the need for social care beds for people who needed care during recuperation, but not medical treatment, she said, adding: "There are still people coming out of acute care who are not well enough to go home," she said. "There is a need for these beds."
Andy Rogers, spokesman for Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust said: "We are still working with NHS Property Services to finalise the details of the lease for Ludlow Community Hospital.
"We monitor the beds at Ludlow Community Hospital on a daily basis and have no record of patients being turned away."
