Community celebrates as hospital sits on the brink of reopening
Campaigners, new staff and a health trust are celebrating as they sit on the brink of getting their much loved community hospital re-opened.
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A successful recruitment campaign in Bishop's Castle saw Save Our Beds campaigners working closely with Shropshire Community Health Trust (ShropCom) to fill vacant posts at the local inpatients hospital.
Councillor Andy Stelman, the deputy mayor at Bishop's Castle Town Council and a member of the renamed group We Saved Bishop's Castle Hospital Beds said volunteers provided refreshments and friendly chats for candidates at recruitment days and helped to spread the word about vacancies.
Mr Stelman said: "After a year of sustained campaigning and a vast improvement in relations between the community and the health trust we have finally got it over the line.
"We feel very pleased that we contributed to this decision."
And the group wants to continue to support the community hospital in the future.
"We want to continue to have a role in supporting staff and through voluntary activity," said Mr Stelman.
The hospital is set to re-open on Monday and a spokesperson for ShropCom said it is looking forward to welcoming back inpatients.
It says following a successful recruitment drive and after working closely with the local community, the trust has successfully recruited the number of staff to be able to safely reopen the service.
In preparation, both new and past members of staff have been welcomed to the hospital for a dedicated period of training that covers the core elements of mandatory training as well as specific clinical role training for nurses, health care support workers and Allied Health Professionals’. Ensuring all staff are fully prepared and raring to go for the reopening.
Clair Hobbs, Director of Nursing and Clinical Delivery says: “It has been fantastic to welcome our new members of staff and also welcome back past colleagues as we prepare to reopen the inpatient beds at Bishop’s Castle Community Hospital.
"The training is going really well, and all staff are looking forward to delivering the best quality of care to the local community.”
The inpatient service at Bishop’s Castle was temporarily closed in October 2021 due to concerns over staffing levels and is scheduled to reopen to the public next week.
Amanda Houghton, Ward Manager at Bishop’s Castle Community Hospital says; “All of our members of staff have been enjoying the training and I have been blown away by their dedication and enthusiasm. We have a very special team here at Bishop’s Castle and we all can’t wait to welcome back patients to the service.”
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust is the NHS organisation responsible for providing community health services to the people of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.
