Shropshire Star

Calls for new health hub to serve south Shropshire

Published
Councillor Tracey HUffer outside the former infirmary building at Ludlow Hospital

Calls have been made for a health hub to be developed to serve south Shropshire – eight years after plans for a new hospital were shelved.

Councillors in Ludlow say a dedicated centre bringing the town’s “fragmented” services together in a state-of-the art facility would help to improve health provision in the town.

They are now urging health bosses to put off the planned sale of the disused infirmary building at Ludlow Hospital until all options for the site’s future have been explored.

Councillor Tracey Huffer, who represents Ludlow East and is also an NHS nurse, said: “I can understand why the NHS wants to sell the building. It is financial liability and becoming unsafe.

“But it has only got into such a bad state because the NHS has failed to maintain the building over decades.

“We need to think about how we manage health provision across Ludlow, which is the primary health hub for south west Shropshire.

“Future Fit, which has failed, was meant to be followed by Community Fit, which was intended to reorganise local health facilities. This has proved to be no more than a pipe dream.

“The entire Ludlow Community Hospital site needs investment and reorganising as a health hub for our community.

“There are fully functional wards that have been unused for years. They could be vital to alleviate the pressure on beds at the main hospitals this coming winter.

“They could help with the transformation from emergency treatment and acute surgery to people’s homes or a care facility.

“Ludlow has a fragmented health estate.

“Our GPs and health professionals are working flat out. They are being asked to do more but unless we have a local plan for health provision, we are in danger of not having the state of the art facilities we will need by 2030.

“It is perhaps time that we looked again at a health campus for Ludlow and the south west of the county.”

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, announced in 2012 that it was planning to build a new £27 million facility on the Eco Park, but dropped the scheme the following year over cost concerns.

Councillor Andy Boddington, who represents Ludlow North, said the site was still owned by the NHS and was “a real waste of building land”.

He said major investment in Ludlow’s health estate was long overdue.

“The former workhouse at the heart of the Ludlow Community Hospital site was built in 1836 and is Grade II listed, but is now fenced off because the façade is crumbling,” said Councillor Boddington.

“We must begin planning for a modern health estate to serve Ludlow and south west Shropshire.”

Councillor Boddington also voiced concerns over the possible future uses of the infirmary building if it were to be sold to a developer.

He said: “If this building is purchased by a housing developer, how will that fit with the use of the rest of the site?

“There are only around 40 parking spaces on the hospital site. Half of these could be needed for residents. The coming and going of residents could disturb patients in the community wards.

“There would be similar problems if the former infirmary is converted to offices.”

An NHS Property Services spokesperson said: “The former infirmary building at Ludlow Hospital has been vacant for a number of years and Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin CCG has declared the site surplus to current and future clinical requirements.

“NHS Property Services will therefore sell the site to generate capital to reinvest in the NHS estate locally.

“This move will take away the ongoing maintenance costs to the local health system.

“This building was developed in 1874 and is no longer suitable for the delivery of modern healthcare.

“However, we will continue to maintain and invest in the remainder of the Ludlow Hospital site.

“For example, this financial year we will spend more than £200,000 on upgrading fire protection measures across the hospital.”

A letter to Councillor Boddington from NHS Property Services added: “We have already listed the site on the Government’s property database, but no public sector partners have expressed a desire to purchase it.

“We will therefore begin the open marketing of the building in the near future.

“Under the Government’s Estates Code, we will need to ensure that we secure ‘market value’ for its sale.

“We will of course continue to maintain the more modern hospital buildings on the site to enable our NHS partners to deliver healthcare services to Ludlow and the surrounding area.”

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