Review starts over ditched Ludlow hospital plan
An independent review into the decisions that led to the collapse of plans to build a new £27 million hospital in Ludlow will be completed by the end of March, it has been revealed.
The NHS Trust Development Authority began the process of undertaking the review earlier this month. The watchdog is examining how Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust came to pull the plug on the project last year after discovering they could not afford to pay for it.
An error in calculating how many patients would use the new Eco Park site, which would have also included new facilities for two town centre GP surgeries, led to a funding shortfall of £1.1 million a year.
Jan Ditheridge, the new chief executive of the community health trust, said she hoped the review would be finished by the end of March.
Discussions have also been taking place with NHS Property Services, which owns the current hospital building, about agreeing a new long-term lease for the trust for the ongoing occupation of the building.
An update on the Ludlow Hospital situation will be given to members of the trust's board at a meeting in Telford on Thursday.
After the plan was scrapped, it was announced £160,000 would be ploughed into the existing community hospital.
