A FUNDING crisis affecting health services in Ludlow and south Shropshire is being wrongly described as an overspend according to a health campaigner.
Gill George, who lives in Ludlow and heads the Defend Our NHS group, says that the problem is that insufficient funding is being made available in the area.
She says that there is a crisis of funding that has been revealed in two leaked documents that she says she has seen,
“Health bosses are very secretive these days, but two leaked documents reveal a massive financial crisis,” said Mrs George.
“The NHS in Shropshire is set to spend £44.9 million ‘too much’ on our healthcare this year (2019-20).
“Meanwhile, the organisation running our hospitals in Shrewsbury and Telford will spend £25.4 million ‘too much.’
“Do health bosses in Shropshire really spend nearly £45 million too much on our care?
“Of course not. This is a crisis of underfunding, not overspending. There’s simply not enough money coming into our NHS.”
Health campaigners say not enough account is taken of the special problems that face people and health services in isolated rural areas like south Shropshire. These include a population that is older than the national average and that therefore makes greater demands and extended travel for people like district nurses.
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