HEALTH chiefs have been fiercely criticised over plans to close beds at two local hospitals. At a meeting due to be held yesterday (Thursday), Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust (PCT) were to discuss a recommendation for the temporary closure of 14 beds at Cranleigh Hospital and 10 beds at Farnham Hospital. The recommendation follows the news that the Guildford and Waverley PCT is facing major financial problems caused by a predicted £6.2 million overspend on their annual budget. The estimated savings of the bed closures at Cranleigh and Farnham for this year would be £219,000. If approved by the PCT, health chiefs say that the bed closures will not compromise patient care and that staff redundancies will not be taking place. Yet a National Health Service (NHS) professional who works at Farnham Hospital, fears job losses and a decrease in standards of patient care are inevitable if the bed closures take place. "Cutting beds is never safe," said the NHS employee who wished to remain anonymous. "Somebody always needs a bed and if someone is going to suffer, it is going to be the elderly. We are going to lose our jobs if they close these 10 beds because they won't need us. "Around 20 jobs are under threat in all of the three wards (at Farnham Hospital), Bentley and Bourne Wards (rehabilitation) and Runfold Ward (stroke unit). They won't try to put people elsewhere and we will just lose our jobs." The NHS professional believes health chiefs should be concentrating their cost-cutting procedures on higher ranked staff members. "They should be looking upstairs," they said. "There are too many people sitting in offices doing nothing. Too many of them give themselves pay rises every year. It is ridiculous and we don't need to close beds." This opinion is shared by local MP Jeremy Hunt, who has urged the Guildford and Waverley PCT to take a wider view of the implications any decision to close local beds will have. Speaking before the Guildford and Waverley PCT meeting yesterday (Thursday), Mr Hunt said: "I will be asking the PCT to delay any decision until they make the decision of community beds in November. The decision to temporarily close beds at both Farnham and Cranleigh Hospitals has been made in an unseemly rush. Despite assurances from the PCT, I do not believe that you can take money of hospital care without negatively affecting patient care." The proposed PCT cuts to stem a potential overspend of £20 million deficit, come in the wake of news that the Surrey and Sussex strategic health authority is top of the overspend list with the biggest deficit in the country of £30.6 million, despite record increases in government spending. The figure is almost 20 per cent of its annual turnover.
