Inpatient beds to reopen at Bishop’s Castle Community Hospital
Inpatient beds at Bishop's Castle community hospital, are set to reopen more than two years after they closed.
The beds were temporarily closed in October 2021 by Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust, due to concerns over staffing levels and safety. They later said the move could become permanent.
At a meeting in Ludlow yesterday the Trust said following a dedicated period of recruitment sufficient staff numbers had been recruited to be able to safely reopen the inpatient service at Bishop’s Castle Community Hospital.
Patricia Davies, Chief Executive said: “Myself and the Trust Board made a commitment to re-open the inpatient beds if safe to do so and we are thrilled to be working on the plan for the re-opening of the service.”
Over the last several months ShropCom has delivered a workforce and recruitment plan focusing additional efforts and resources to recruiting to the vacant posts. With colleagues from the Trust working collaboratively with the local community, stakeholders and staff to ensure all avenues to recruit were explored.
As part of the dedicated recruitment drive, ShropCom launched a recruitment campaign across social media, local press, radio advertising, promotional videos and poster campaign. They also hosted a series of recruitment events at the hospital with interviewees invited to meet ShropCom staff and have an interview on the day, with successful candidates leaving with a job offer.
Patricia Davies continued: “On behalf of myself and the Trust Board I would like to say a huge thankyou to the local community and all members of staff who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes and played an integral part in us being able to re-open the beds.
"The work doesn’t end here! We will now continue to work together to ensure the smooth reopening of the inpatient service.”
Local MP Philip Dunne said: "This is spectacularly good news! After some two years of closure there has been a huge effort by the team at ShropCom, which would not have happened had it not been so well backed by many volunteers in Bishop's Castle.
"I saw this novel way of attracting potential recruits to the roles available for myself when I joined a recruitment day earlier this year. The key was having local people on hand to sing the praises of life in the charming but small market town of Bishop’s Castle right on the Welsh border.
"I hope those staff who have applied to join the team at Bishop's Castle will be signed up as soon as possible so that the hospital can reopen its doors to in-patients in weeks rather months to help ease the pressure on hospital beds across the county."
The Trust says that details of the re-opening plan will be released shortly. In the meantime, the Trust, staff, and wider community are looking forward to the next exciting chapter at Bishop’s Castle Community Hospital.
