Anger as hospital shop is closed

A volunteer-run coffee shop that has been serving customers at Sandwell Hospital for 40 years is closing its doors.

A Costa Coffee branch that has opened in the hospital will replace it.

Members of the Women's Royal Voluntary Service who run the WRVS Coffee Bar were hit with the shock news at a meeting on Friday.

The coffee shop has been running in the outpatients department for decades with around 30 women giving up their time to run it.

Mrs Jenny Davis, who has volunteered for 16 years, said: "We had a meeting and nobody knew what it was about and we were told the hospital was taking over the coffee bar on May 18.

"We are all opposed because we knew nothing about it, we have just been told they are taking it over."

Mrs Davis, aged 80, of Canterbury Road, Stone Cross said the news followed the opening of a new Costa Coffee last year.

Bridgette Honeygan, spokeswoman for the hospital, said: "As the trust is in the process of reviewing our catering outlets, we have decided the tea bar should come back in-house and be managed and promoted in line with our other catering outlets, however the retail shop will continue to be managed by the WRVS."