MPs' rage as cuts hit town hospitals (From Tewkesbury Admag)

MPs' rage as cuts hit town hospitals

COTSWOLD MPs have blasted plans to cut health services across Gloucestershire which would see Winchcombe Cottage Hospital close down after more than 70 years.

Moreton Cottage Hospital is also set to lose six beds, although plans to build a new hospital and GP surgery have been revived, and Bourton's popular Moore Cottage Hospital will also lose beds and probably its minor injuries unit.

But it is Winchcombe that looks to have come off worst in the plan. The hospital's League of Friends and the whole town are already planning a mass protest.

"Winchcombe is a growing town," said League of Friends spokesman Rupert Chislett. "The hospital has been here for many years and fulfils a huge need for Winchcombe. It also helps ease pressure on beds at Cheltenham General Hospital as patients come to recuperate here. The logic behind this is simply economic. The whole of Winchcombe is outraged by this and we will be making as strong a protest as possible."

County-wide, the plan could see 12 hospitals close, 300 beds lost, and 200 jobs go and the health authority tackles an expected £40m deficit.

Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown reacted angrily to the cuts, saying: "People in the Cotswolds and the elderly in particular, will undoubtedly be the first to suffer as a result of the incompetence of the Department of Health, and the financial mismanagement of our National Health Service. The government appear to have forgotten that the Cotswolds has one of the highest proportions of elderly people in the United Kingdom. It is crucial that these services stay local; how many more cuts are we still to face?"

Laurence Robertson, MP for Tewkesbury, said: "This Labour government has taxed us more and more and delivered less and less. All we are seeing are cuts in our local health services."

The plan to alter health services in the county, under which the present Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust will disappear, will be the subject of another massive consultation exercise which will begin within the next two weeks.

Only a brief outline of the plan was revealed at a public meeting of the trust board on Tuesday. No figures were given for the loss of beds at Bourton, but Dr Tim Healy from Stow, spokesman for the core group of local medical and social care workers that advises the board, pleaded for the two sites to be retained.

"We have got to be open that this is financially driven," he said. "It needs to be transparent to the people of Bourton that the hospital might go completely."

Fears over the future of Bourton's hospital were raised before Easter when it was announced that several beds would be closed because of staff shortages, but they were reopened after the holiday.

Mr Philip Winter, chairman of Bourton's Moore Cottage Hospital's League of Friends, said: "There is still much that we need to know. How many patients is this going to affect?"

The Trust held a three-month consultation at the beginning of this year on the initial proposals which would see Gloucestershire served by just one PCT and part of the South West Strategic Health Authority.

The PCT's plan for health provision in the north Cotswolds involves less bed-based care and more community-based services. The model was being discussed by the health authority's Overview and Scrutiny Committee this mornings. Copies of the new health model will be available to libraries.

A joint statement issued by the PCT and NHS Trust chief executives in Gloucestershire said: "We are very proud of the services we offer to patients. However, we still need to make savings and ensure that we live within our means. To do this we need to speed up our plans to change services if we are to meet the needs of patients in the future."