22/12/2025
Christmas message from the Partners
We started 2025 with the purpose of embedding our core values of kindness, compassion and service across the teams at Station Drive and Bishops Castle and starting to draw on the strength that these two exceptional groups of staff bring to clinical care for our patients.
For the past 12 months we have worked across both the Ludlow and Bishops Castle sites covering the surgeries alongside the permanent team of clinicians at each site, and both community hospitals, totaling 40 inpatient beds. The registered patient population has increased to just over 9500 at Ludlow, and in response to this the number of clinical face-to-face sessions has grown also. At the start of the year we welcomed Dr James Bent as a full-time permanent associate and we are delighted to have Dr Taya Chapman joining us as a full-time associate from August.
The team of Advanced Practitioners has continued to grow and deliver some outstanding achievements with Kate Mansbridge being awarded the title of Queens Nurse earlier this year and being a key member of the Ludlow & Area Community Partnership, Jane Taylor becoming a senior clinician at the community hospital supporting the Partners with their role there, Matt Ziola and Leigh Dalton both being accredited with their prescribing qualifications. In addition, we recently welcomed Andy MaCauley to the team. Andy comes to us from the community team, having had a senior role within the Virtual ward team, and he works across our team supporting the on-call clinician, booked face-to-face appointments, home visits and community hospitals as well as his ongoing CPR role within Shropshire.
Clinical practice in primary care is constantly evolving and it is important that our patients receive the best support with their health. In response to this Lauren Harrison and Sandy Russell have increased psychotherapy sessions for patients to book in to, and we have appointed Stef Atzori (pharmacy technician) alongside Charlotte Lynch (senior pharmacist) to work within our team focusing on prescribing, medicines management and ensuring our patients are receiving the most up to date medication regimes for their illnesses.
The longstanding team of senior nurses led by Tonia Meyrick continue to provide clinics at the surgery with both Tonia and Gemma having prescribing qualifications and Sarah Cound training to achieve hers in 2026. Stef Rawlings, Abi Hirons, Sally Yapp, Tracey Huffer and Nicola Lloyd continue to expand their skills and roles providing enhanced foot screening, dressings and long-term disease management as well as health checks.
No clinical team can function without a strong managerial support structure and the team headed up by Jodie Billinge continues to provide the very structure we work within, making our day to day clinical care seamless as they manage the clinical sessions, buildings, staff and resources for us.
Clinically our outcomes remain exceptionally high as seen in our QOF scores, monthly returns and community hospital audits.
The benefit of working with such a gifted team is that as Partners we are encouraged to always do more and to look at what else we can improve for our patients, and in the last 6 months our focus has turned to the services that lie outside of the surgery walls and in our neighborhood.
We have been very fortunate to have built strong working relationships with the voluntary sector; local pharmacies with the “pharmacy first” scheme, which we supported Lunts pharmacy to establish, enabling patient to be seen there for certain consultation; Specsavers and their team who constantly support our clinical reviews; local physiotherapists, foot health practitioners; nutrition groups and podiatrists.
The Ludlow community has a vast range of assets to improve the lives and outcomes for its residents, and as Partners, supported by our PCN and patient group, we took time develop a plan for improving the environment within which our patients live and raise their families.
For many years our patients have struggled to access hospital services and appointments. For both of us, travelling between Bishops Castle and Ludlow several times a week has highlighted how difficult it must be for many of you to get the care you need with very limited public transport and ever shrinking family budgets. Our first commitment over the next few years will be to bring as many services to Ludlow and Bishops Castle as feasible, including services within the community hospitals such the IV therapy services for antibiotics and other medications that is being implemented, discuss with the business sector, our elected members and council what may be possible in relation to joining up the two communities and linking them both back to Hereford and Shrewsbury. The effect would be much more far reaching than health, allowing our young people choice as regards colleges, training, work opportunities, hobbies and socialization; families to expose their children to a wider range of experiences, our elderly to remain connected to communities they may once have found it easy to access with better transport in the past.
More pressing though is literacy. The ability to read, to make informed decisions, to be confident with your medications, understand what health choices you have been offered, utilize the expansive information now available through AI, manage your own results and prescription ordering moves our patients towards a state of prevention and improved health outcomes. As Partners we are aware that some of our patients never did learn to read, some struggle to navigate complex IT systems because they struggle with reading and many experience limited job opportunities due to their literacy level. Prior to the covid pandemic we had supported the beginnings of a literacy scheme locally. It was very successful with volunteers teaching many adult residents to read. Alongside the key partners of the voluntary sector, opticians, pharmacies and local residents offering their reading and teaching skills we will be launching this scheme again in 2026. If anyone is interested in being involved in the scheme, either helping people to learn to read or joining to improve your literacy, please contact the surgery and ask to be included in the RAYS project list.
2025 hasn’t been without its challenges for everyone. Many of you have lost loved ones and friends. We have been deeply saddened at the loss of two key clinical colleagues, with the death of Dr Val Klein and Dr Pippa Winter in the past few months. Losing these two doctors who had been so dedicated not just within their clinical practice but also in the local community made us realise the importance of neighborhood and community, and how each of us has a role to play to improve the lives of others.
Finally we wish to thank our team for their belief in our vision of bringing together both surgeries and their patients, for bearing with us through some quite turbulent times this year, and being steadfast in their personal commitment to putting patients and their families first.
Wishing you all, and your families, a very happy Christmas and a safe 2026.
David and Caron
