Shipston-on-Stour hospital fundraisers want donation back

Prof Brian Stoten from the League of Friends said it was considering legal action to get the money back

Fundraisers who donated £635,000 towards a new community hospital are calling for the money to be returned after plans were scaled back.

The League of Friends wanted inpatient beds in the replacement for the Ellen Badger Hospital in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, which closed in 2022.

The hospital trust said a number of "external factors" had forced it to make changes to the original plan.

But it said it was committed to a "first class" facility.

The old hospital building, which opened in 1896, has been demolished and the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust said the new hospital on the site would offer outpatient services, clinics and treatment rooms.

The League of Friends donated funds to enable the trust to buy the land next to the hospital site, while the trust also successfully bid for £2.3m of national funding.

The NHS has promised "enhanced clinical spaces for hospital and community services"

The fundraisers said when they made their donation, it was on the understanding it would include inpatient beds.

The chairman of the League of Friends, Prof Brian Stoten, said: "We gave them the money for a community hospital and we're not going to get it.

"It's just disappeared into the maw of the managerial administrative mess which is currently the NHS."

The new facility is expected to be complete by the summer of 2024

South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust said: "Since the proposals were initially discussed there have been several external factors that have contributed to changes in the design, plans and timescales.

"These include responding to and learning from Covid, funding within the wider health economy and increasing costs in the construction market."

It said it was "not viable to restore the original building due to its age, condition and infrastructure" and the new facility would have "a range of services available".

The trust also said it had not been approached by the League of Friends to have the money returned and that the money had already been used, to purchase the land next to the site in 2018.