Ex-NHS chair calls out health service's 'democratic deficit' as part of fight to restore hospital beds in Shipston

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust (SWFT) conducted a review which recommended community beds, for patients needing onward recovery, rehabilitation or who are getting ready for discharge from acute settings, should be accommodated in Warwick and Stratford.

Ellen Badger Hospital, Shipston, closed its doors in January 2022 in order to demolish and rebuild parts that were deemed beyond repair, initially with the inclusion of the inpatient beds it had before.

Plans to take out those beds have been met with a fierce backlash from the Shipston community, particularly the League of Friends which gifted £635,000 to SWFT to help with the rebuild. They say the inclusion of the beds was implicit.

Professor Bryan Stoten chairs the League of Friends and was the chair of NHS Warwickshire from 2000 to 2012.

In a question put to district leader Councillor Susan Juned (Lib Dem, Alcester East), he called out misconceptions of the Ellen Badger being a “geriatric hospital” and that it should not be seen as a discharge route “but as a means of preventing residents requiring acute hospital care in the first place”.

The Coventry & Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), the body that makes the final decision, was due to rubber stamp the new community bed plans in July but following public and political pressure opted for a full public consultation.

The district council will be one of the consultees and while it has no direct say over the call, Professor Stoten urged all councillors to keep the pressure on.

“Unlike the NHS, of which I was a chairman for most of the difficult bits, there is no democratic representation,” he said.

“There is a huge democratic deficit and this is not true of local government. What has happened to your residents of Shipston-on-Stour over the past five or six years as they progressively lost services – a hospital, clinics, consulting rooms – has been unrepresented by anyone in our governments."

Citing the demolition of the old building, he continued: “It went through with no public consultation, no planning permission, no endorsement from the democratic agencies of this country, whether district or county council.

“It has left a community in the south of the county bereft of services and dismayed at the lack of representation that they have had.

“Shipston residents are looking to Stratford District Council to represent them and ensure their voice is actually heard.

“We had 700 people in the most torrential weather imaginable just over two months ago marching from the centre of the town to the hospital.

“They are looking to you, leader. I hope you will be able to give them comfort that someone is listening to their concerns and is capable of ensuring those concerns are addressed.”

Cllr Juned replied: “As someone who saw the end of Alcester Community Hospital, I fully support your commitment to the community hospital in Shipston. I will make sure a consultation is undertaken and that this council will respond to that consultation.

“At that time, we will be able to put forward our full thoughts, and we will do so forcefully.”

She also highlighted a wish to have more information on the volume of social care staff and training programmes for them across the district.

“I want to emphasise that 25 per cent of our district’s population now is over 65, and that will be relevant to our consultation response,” she added.