Anger at U-turn over ward
Health bosses set to vote on closing a Ludlow hospital ward tomorrow had planned to give it a major facelift just a year ago. County health chiefs wanted to keep Ludlow Hospital's Whitcliffe Ward open.
They even wanted to spend money on improvements to a toilet block, it emerged today.
But within weeks of drafting a 188-page confidential report, Shropshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) bosses drew up different plans and recommended closure.
Today, hospital campaigners said they were outraged by the dramatic U-turn. Martin Taylor-Smith, deputy chairman of the Ludlow Hospital League of Friends, said: "This is absolutely stunning.
"The PCT clearly had a plan to ensure Whitcliffe had a long-term future. It was looking at improvements and ways of increasing the occupancy rate for beds. Yet, within weeks, it had abandoned that plan and recommended closure."
Clive Walsh, the PCT boss behind a consultation into reorganising local hospitals, today admitted he had been unaware of the plans.
He said: "The PCT considered a whole range of different ideas including, at the pre-consultation stage, evaluating the closure of one or more community hospitals."
The confidential draft report by Shropshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) is 188 pages long and dated July 2005. It has been leaked to the Shropshire Star.
One of the key ideas for Whitcliffe Ward was to im-prove facilities and increase the use of beds by patients, rather than close it.
The PCT is set to vote on its plans on Tuesday.
