How people power won the day in NHS fight

Campaigners worked with the NHS trust to keep beds at their hospital open

When the NHS said there was "no reasonable prospect" of reopening a town's inpatient hospital beds, residents thought they had a fight on their hands.

Bosses said they could not recruit enough staff for 24/7 operations at Bishop's Castle Community Hospital in rural Shropshire, and a temporary suspension announced in 2021 was set to be made permanent.

But on Thursday, they changed their mind and announced the beds would reopen, after campaigners and the health trust running the site worked together to bring more nurses to the town.

So how did protests, public meetings and even threats of legal action turn into a victory for co-operation?

Christine Williams went from "shouting loudly" to helping at nurse interviews

The tone of the dispute changed last autumn when Shropshire Community Health Trust (ShropCom) agreed to try a fresh recruitment drive, and those who had been chanting and planning to go to court over the beds were part of a sales pitch for the town.

In campaigner Christine Williams' case, her initial role was "going to meetings and shouting loudly", but she ended up supporting candidates at interviews for nursing roles.

"I've been in the back room, chatting to them while they've been nervous... really letting them know about the local area," she explained.

The chair of campaign group Save Our Beds, Jenny Sargeant, said: "To be fair to the trust, they've worked with us, they've let us into all the recruitment days, and they have acknowledged that we've made a big difference."

"It's a great thing for the community, and for other communities, to know that this can be done."

Jenny Sargeant chaired the Save Our Beds campaign group

Early in 2023, ShropCom was pessimistic about the chances for reviving the inpatient service, and demoralised staff complained they had been kept in the dark.

Even when a consultation on the unit's future was launched in the summer that year, the trust was warning of a 60% vacancy rate for registered nurses, and problems with recruitment and retention.

Chief executive Patricia Davies said bringing the community on side was key to reversing the problem.

"Talking to some of the people who've been recruited... if you don't know that community, it's not just about the job.

"It's about relocating your family, it's the services on offer, whether you need to get to schools, to think about those wider facilities," she said.

"Engaging with the community allowed prospective candidates to have that conversation."

She said she would work the same way in the future.

Mayor Josh Dickin was pushed 18 miles around the district on a bed as part of the campaign

Bishop's Castle mayor Josh Dickin made an eye-catching contribution to the campaign, being pushed 18 miles in a bed last August, wearing pyjamas and a long blonde wig.

He said the determination of the area's people should never be underestimated.

"Bishop's Castle stands up for what it wants," he said.

"It gets what it wants in the end, and there's a lot of people who are really motivated... just passionate about services in our town."