ALTON Town Council is to throw its weight behind local condemnation of bed closures at Alton Community Hospital. The 24-bed Inwood ward was closed last week and, according to retired GP James Willis, "there are no plans to re-open it"." "It is an absolutely priceless asset, offering a superb quality of nursing and to describe the closure as a change for the better is the kind of spin to be resisted and regretted absolutely," said Dr Willis. He and retired colleague Dr Christopher Everett were at last Thursday's full town council meeting to alert councillors to the closure of Inwood ward which has resulted in the loss of 24 GP and consultancy beds, reducing the hospital's bed capacity by half. The doctors had been disturbed by the decision of the North Hampshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) to close Inwood ward as a way of addressing an apparent inability to recruit sufficient staff, resulting in an earlier-than- planned move towards its preferred strategy of treating more people in their own homes. Alton's GPs believe it has more to do with a cash-strapped PCT seeing Alton Community Hospital as a soft target for cutting costs. The underlying fear is that it could be the beginning of the end for Alton Community Hospital. Referring to the demise first of Alton General and more recently of Treloar Hospital, Dr Everett told councillors: "We may be retired but we have seen it all before. First you get the supposed shortage of staff which forces reductions in bed numbers, then the unit becomes non-viable and you get closure followed by sale of the land for housing." Dr Everett then read out a letter - signed by himself, Dr Willis and retired colleague Hugh Bethell - which appeared in the Alton Herald last week. In the letter, the three GPs spoke out strongly against the closure and urged the local people to register their concerns or face losing the facility for good. Concerned that councillors should not take what the PCT says at face value, his plea was from the heart: "Please treat this as a very serious loss of medical facilities," he said. In urging fellow councillors to take up the cudgel, Alton Town Mayor Paddy Mendham said that the closure of Inwood ward and the implied uncertainty over the future of the hospital itself represented "a potential disaster for Alton." Leader of the council David Willoughby agreed, pointing out that Alton's 2020 Vision had made it quite clear that Alton Community Hospital was a valued facility which people wanted to see maintained. "There is clear evidence that the people of Alton want to see improvements not a reduction in facilities," he said. It was agreed unanimously to write to the North Hampshire PCT to register the council's extreme concern about the closure of Inwood ward and urging a rapid reinstatement. l Following the meeting Dr Everett made it clear that while the retired GPs have sought to "blow the whistle" on the situation, it is now down to the community to fight for the reinstatement of the GP ward and to retain the facilities at Alton Community Hospital.
