Building new £27m Ludlow hospital would be irresponsible, says boss

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust's interim chief executive Julia Bridgewater was defending a decision by her board to vote in favour of pulling the plug on the project for good, following months of delays.

Instead, £160,000 will be ploughed into Ludlow's existing community hospital in the town centre to ensure it is fit for purpose for the "next two to five years".

A task force will also be set up including patients, nursing staff, health chiefs and councillors to look at ways of improving healthcare in the town.

It could include making Ludlow a "test-bed" for new technology initiatives, the meeting was told.

The new health facility had been planned for the Eco Park on the outskirts of town, and would have included the relocation of Ludlow's two GP surgeries.

But the meeting was told changes to the NHS nationally had delayed its implementation, and further looks at costings had revealed a potential £1.1 million per year shortfall in funding.

Mrs Bridgewater said health bosses had "left no stone unturned" in looking for ways to keep the project on the table.

But she said at most all they had been able to to do was cut the shortfall down to £800,000 per year – meaning it would still need an injection of £20 million over the next 25 years from already stretched health budgets to allow it to go ahead.

She said: "It has been a tough decision and we really regret having to make it.

"But it would have been wrong to have continued with the new build which would have left the NHS community with a £20 million debt over the next 25 years – a debt of £20 million over a generation.

"During the planning period, the scheme has been affected by changes in clinical policy and NHS structures, and in the current financial climate it is difficult to invest in buildings when pressure on front line staff continues to increase.

"As such, our commitment remains to our patients, the services they need and the staff who provide them, not just bricks and mortar.

"We have an existing hospital in Ludlow and the trust board has strongly agreed that we should continue to invest in this to deliver improvements to existing patient services and make the best use of new health technologies.

"I know this is hugely disappointing to local residents and our staff who were all keen to see the new hospital which had been planned for so long.

"But we hope they will understand that it was a decision we had to take, and that it would have been irresponsible to continue.

"As a chief executive, it would have been irresponsible of me not to check the financial viability of the project after such a long time period had elapsed, and after national changes to the NHS system.

"I had to be sure and I had to assure the trust board that this project was financially viable. After the review it was clear that because so much has changed, assumptions made originally have now moved on and we have been unable to make it financially viable.

"We must focus on making the best use of funds for frontline services and cannot leave the system in debt to such an extent."

Non-executive trust board member Chris Bird, a qualified accountant, said he felt professionally the figure of £800,000 was a "very optimistic one" and that hidden costs could see it jump to between £2 million and £3 million.

And the decision to axe the jinxed project was backed by Ludlow councillor Viv Parry, who praised the work of Mrs Bridgewater since arriving at the trust six months ago.

Councillor Parry said: "Suddenly, and at last, we are being told the truth.This was going to cost us an awful lot of money and somebody had to stand up and say 'this will not work', so I thank you for that, Julia."

The trust had previously asked Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group whether it could provide the additional £1.1 million annual running costs but it decided at a board meeting last month that it was unable to do so, as it would mean taking money away from frontline services to pay for a building.

CCG chief Dr Caron Morton said bosses would have had to axe the jobs of 22 district nurses to provide the cash.