Protestors urged to dress as badgers over Shipston hospital plans as SWFT seeks bed review approval

An army of badgers is poised to take to the streets in protest at the lack of beds at the new Shipston hospital.

Organisers of a demonstration on 5th August against the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust’s plans for the old Ellen Badger site are encouraging protestors to come dressed as badgers.

The stripy mammal has long become a mascot in Shipston’s fight to include in-patient facilities at the new hospital.

It is a nod to the surname of the original founder of the town’s hospital – local wine merchant Richard Badger funded its building in 1896 and named it in honour of his wife Ellen.

Campaign organiser Alasdair Elliott said: “The local community will keep on ‘badgering’ decision makers until they realise that a community hospital, with beds, is the best way to ease bed blocking and improve health outcomes for the whole of South Warwickshire.”

Plans to build the new hospital with beds were first unveiled in 2018, but in a move that infuriated townspeople that had fundraised hundreds of thousands for the new development, SWFT announced in 2020 that it was jettisoning in-patient facilities from the proposals.