‘This is why we need hospital beds in Shipston’, says pensioner, 88, injured in fall

A PENSIONER who campaigned for years to save beds at Ellen Badger, is a victim of the exact thing she’s protested about.

Eighty-eight-year-old Maggie Goren, who lives in Lower Brailes, fell at home and fractured her wrist and hip in two places, so needed a hospital stay.

But rather than being cared for at the Ellen Badger in Shipston just four miles and eight minutes from her home, she was sent to the Horton in Banbury, almost three times the distance away.

Maggie, a member of the Beds for Badger campaign and Ellen Badger League of Friends groups, has played a key role in the many marches, demonstrations and petitions during the past five years to persuade Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (WCICB) to keep beds at the Badger.

Sadly, these pleas fell on deaf ears, with hopping-mad residents venting their fury after health chiefs trumpeted the reopening of the Ellen Badger Hospital this week.

They angrily pointed out that, since there are no beds, it’s not a hospital, despite what the sign outside might say. The new 10-room, three-storey building has no X-ray or minor injuries facilities.

From her hospital bed in Banbury, Maggie wrote to SWFT chief executive Glen Burley, who plays a key role in deciding where services are allocated, telling him how “desperately unhappy” she and others in Shipston, surrounding villages and Stratford are with the replacement Ellen Badger centre.

She added: “Sadly, all successive governments are doing is looking at cost not the health and well-being of the electorate, which is what all the NHS foundation trusts are concentrating on to toe the line.

“Your 9am-5pm health centres are obviously far cheaper to run than a hospital. But long term Glen, I have my doubts.

“Is it conceivable that you might finally now bow to the electorate and adapt your new building to include community hospital beds and staff for the increasing 155,000 population of our health area which SWFT says should be loaded onto Leamington or Warwick with their increasing populations?

“And is there anyone out there who believes they have that duty of care to an electorate that has paid into this system over their working lives and often not used it much?”

Maggie, who is now, fortunately, at home recovering and being looked after by carers and her son, told the Herald: “As it’s less than half the distance, friends could have walked to the Ellen Badger from Shipston and from my village to visit me, as it’s only four miles.

“The assumption is that everybody can drive, but quite a few people in my village don’t have cars, so to get to the Horton is difficult.

“There are only about two buses a day and, if you were transferred to Warwick or Coventry, they wouldn’t be able to get there at all.”

She added: “This tearing down of community hospitals all over the country is because they’re 24-hour care and much more expensive than running a nine-to-five, so-called health and wellbeing centre with no beds.

“There’s absolute fury about this among the electorate here.

“What I’ve learned is that these National Health Foundation Trusts are not elected but they have more power than councils.

“Despite the wishes of the electorate and years of campaigning, all over the country they are doing the same thing, and I think it’s causing unnecessary deaths in some cases.”

Before it was demolished, Ellen Badger had 16 beds, down from 35 in 2000.

Supporters who handed over £635,000 to health bosses, were led to believe these beds would be restored, once their new hospital was rebuilt.

The old hospital, given to the town by a local benefactor, provided beds, physio, X-rays and minor injuries facilities – but these are also all now gone.

Alasdair Elliott, chairman of the Beds for Badger Campaign group and Shipston-based businessman, said: “The vast majority of the residents of Shipston and the surrounding rural community are furious the new building has the bare-faced cheek to have the words ‘Ellen Badger Hospital’ prominently displayed.

“We can only assume that the signage was ordered some years ago when we were promised a brand new hospital to replace the existing one given to the community by local benefactor, Richard Badger.

“On the basis of discussions and joint visits by SWFT and the League of Friends of the Ellen Badger Hospital to two new hospitals – Moreton and Rye Hospital in Kent, the Friends were enticed into handing over £635,000 towards its construction on the understanding that it would have similar facilities including a minor injuries unit, X-ray service and the ‘temporarily’ stripped out rehabilitation and respite beds would be restored.

“We now have a fiasco which has been eight years in the making.

“Democracy lost out when 82 per cent of the South Warwickshire community hospital rehabilitation bed public consultation responses preferred to have beds in all three locations, the Ellen Badger, Leamington and Stratford hospitals, but were both ignored and overridden.

A spokesperson for SWFT said: “The Ellen Badger development is an exciting investment for the local community. Aligned to the national direction for health services, it will bring together hospital, community and primary care teams, alongside the voluntary sector. Ellen Badger Hospital will be a leading example for the benefits of this new approach to localised, community-based care, which supports people to keep well and where possible out of an acute hospital setting, which we know improves outcomes.

“Another example of bringing services closer to communities, is the new diagnostic hub at Stratford Hospital, which will be operational from 9th June. As part of the national programme to have centralised diagnostic facilities, we have been able to create this dedicated facility which will benefit all residents in the most southern parts of South Warwickshire. We have also put in the infrastructure to bring mobile diagnostics on site at Ellen Badger so are also working with external partners who deliver national screening programmes.”