FARNHAM Community Hospital may soon have to take on extra patients after health chiefs confirmed plans to close Milford Hospital this week.

However, many campaigners against the proposed closure have just held a weekend of events to promote their cause and have vowed to fight on. Their hope is that a groundswell of public opinion will force a rethink.

Last night (Thursday) the Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust, (PCT) which runs Milford Hospital, was due to discuss a proposal for permanent closure on April 1, 2005, despite the huge outcry from local residents.

Plans to close the hospital, whose future has been in doubt for many months, were outlined in a paper to the PCT's board meeting. The recommendation to begin public consultation over the closure plans was expected to be approved.

Currently the hospital has 50 consultant-led rehabilitation beds as well as a number of other facilities which are used by patients from across south west Surrey.

Under the controversial scheme Milford Hospital will close and the beds will be "re-provided" in neighbouring hospitals.

Twenty-two will go to Farnham Community Hospital and 28 to the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford.

Commenting on the proposed closure, Simon Cordon, Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for south west Surrey said: "Despite using the word relocate, they (the PCT) are not planning to build a ward of 22 beds but use current beds instead. They give the impression that there are 22 empty beds at Farnham but that simply isn't true. This is double counting of the worst kind."

The beds at the Royal Surrey Hospital would be temporarily housed in the Compton Ward while plans for a new purpose-built rehabilitation unit at the hospital are drawn up.

The Milford Hospital's day services are expected to move mainly to Haslemere Community Hospital but with others going to the Royal Surrey and Cranleigh Community Hospital.

Ten beds for orthopaedic treatment currently at Milford will be moved to the Royal Surrey.

In the report to the board the director of the clinical services department, Cheryl Hamilton, explained that the PCT has a duty to make the best use of its resources.

She explained that the success in tackling bed blocking and the provision of additional beds in other hospitals means that the PCT can now provide the rehabilitation beds in hospitals other than Milford – increasing "efficiency" and saving cash.

"Now is the time for us to consolidate our bed stock and and robustly review the use of the community hospitals with our acute colleagues," her report said.

Staff were informed of the proposals last week and will be consulted at the same time as members of the public – if yesterday's recommendation was agreed.

The PCT's chief executive Elizabeth Slinn told The Herald that both Farnham and the Royal Surrey hospitals are in agreement that at any one time there are a good number of empty beds available at the two hospitals meaning that it can accommodate the rehabilitation beds.

"What I am saying is that the proposal to the board will provide the whole service in better surroundings and make the best use of our resources.

"They are public resources and we have a stewardship role to consider."

Mrs Slinn also explained that the Guildford and Waverley PCT have to find more than £10 million in savings before the end of the financial year.

"We are working very hard but our confidence levels are still not at 100 per cent," she told The Herald.

"But by the end of this year will will have broken even and have plans for the future."

Closing Milford Hospital will bring in around £1.5 million in savings over a whole year. The site, which is less than one acre, is worth around £5 million but will revert back to the health authority when it is vacated.

She continued: "It is a balancing act and a way of life to find the best way of providing services where the solution matches the criteria of safe, sustainable and affordable.

"That is our point of view as a board and we are committed to those things and have to think what's right for our patients.

"We will never drive costs out of the system. I think in the health service we have to confront difficult choices."

The consultation process will begin on October 1 and will end on Christmas Eve.

The PCT will then consider the results of the consultation at its meeting on January 27 where it will make a final decision over whether or not to push ahead with its closure plans.