There has been much activity in the community recently regarding both the services provided at Ludlow Community Hospital and the separate issue of the proposed change of out of hours GP service provider (currently ShropDoc).

Some of these discussions are ongoing with various parties and we thought it useful to clarify our position.

As The League of Friends of Ludlow Community Hospital our remit is clear: raising funds and supporting our town’s hospital (and some other carefully chosen organisations) to deliver the best of care to improve physical and mental wellbeing. Whether it be specialist equipment for scans and treatments to stop unnecessary and long journeys, additional facilities to improve ambience and patient/family support or some financial support for carefully chosen community projects.

We will therefore continue our work to do just that and we will be writing to our members very soon to give more detailed information on our specific objectives for Ludlow Hospital and our past, current and future activities to support that. We believe it useful to clarify our role during this period of increased discussion locally.
The issue of the Out of Hours GP service provider is one which we observe with interest of course, but it is not a subject which we feel we should be commenting on or taking part in any detailed discussion. This is a separate, NHS service-based issue and one which other organisations will be better placed and better informed to both comment on and take any necessary action.

Additionally, there is some thought that an ‘Action Group’ of some description may be formed locally to campaign for better health services in our area. Like many, we are not clear who is leading this, who it will comprise of and what the deliverables are. Again, we feel this is better chaired by a completely independent figurehead, certainly not those of us involved in supporting specific local healthcare issues. We will, of course, engage in and contribute to any SPECIFIC discussions regarding services at Ludlow Community Hospital.

Our focus is, and must remain, working with and in partnership with the various organisations involved at Ludlow Hospital to support them in delivering timely, cost effective and accessible healthcare to the residents of Ludlow and the surrounding area.

We will be writing our members soon with our own, more detailed, update on our specific objectives for Ludlow Hospital.

Jennifer Gill & Michael Evans
Co-Chairs
Ludlow Community Hospital League of Friends