Petition launched to get Mid Wales urgent care centre

Jane Dodds, Lib Dem Welsh Assembly candidate for Montgomeryshire, said it is vital the Welsh Assembly opens a centre in the region.

She said it would alleviate pressure on local GPs and remove the need to travel to Shrewsbury and Aberystwyth for treatment. She also joined calls for A&E services to remain in Shrewsbury under the NHS Future Fit scheme, which could see them based solely in Telford.

Ms Dodds said: "I'm very pleased with the decision to keep the Shrewsbury site as a functioning hospital, but it's also desperately important that accident and emergency services remain there to serve residents of Mid Wales.

"It is also positive to see the further adoption of urgent care centres across Shropshire.

"So far they have proven to be very successful and I will continue to petition the Labour Welsh Government to provide funding for a similar centre here in Montgomeryshire. It really is the only solution to help take pressure off our local GPs and remove the need to travel as far as Shrewsbury or Aberystwyth for treatment that could be provided closer to home."

Last week, it was revealed that one of the area's two casualty units will close during the next decade. A meeting of health executives decided that a new emergency centre would be created at either Telford or Shrewsbury, ruling out a third option of building a new site between the two towns, on the basis that it would cost the NHS between £15 million and £17 million a year.

David Evans, chief officer of Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group, said the distance travelled to the new emergency centre would have no impact on patient safety, saying it was a misconception that in life-threatening cases people would automatically be taken to the nearest hospital.

Meanwhile, controversy is continuing over the fate of Ludlow Hospital ahead of the health services reorganisation.

Ludlow councillor Tracey Huffer, who sits on Shropshire Council's health scrutiny committee, said the NHS Future Fit review of services in the county can't afford to deliver what is mooted for Shropshire's more rural towns like Ludlow, putting the town's hospital at continued risk. She said beds were being "ever reduced by stealth".

But Ludlow MP Philip Dunne, who called a meeting on the issue on Wednesday night, said health bosses "clearly believe" Ludlow Hospital will become the base for a new urgent care centre, a move that it is hoped will safeguard the future of the hospital. Urgent care centres are being considered for Bishop's Castle, Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Oswestry and Whitchurch.

• To sign Jane Dodds’ petition, visit: www.montlibdems.org.uk/umc