SW Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt has continued his fight to save 26 local hospital beds from the chop after health chiefs controversially decided to close them. The Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust (PCT) has made the contentious decision to ignore the advice of Surrey County Council's health scrutiny committee (HSC) to delay a decision temporarily to close 51 community care beds across Waverley. At a meeting last month, the HSC decided that the PCT needed formally to consult on its plans to close the beds temporarily as part of its controversial bid to slash costs, due to a financial crisis following a predicted £6.2 million overspend on its annual budget. Yet after considering the HSC's views, members of the PCT board came to the unanimous decision to proceed with the temporary axing of the beds. Ten beds in Farnham and 14 in Cranleigh will remain closed until April next year; however, the remaining 27 beds, including the 16 on the Elizabeth Ward at Haslemere Hospital, will be immediately reopened for a different purpose. This decision by the PCT has been fiercely criticised by many local officials and Mr Hunt has pledged to do all he can to keep the beds open. On Tuesday, Mr Hunt along with Guildford MP Ann Milton and the Cross-Community Group (CCG), presented the PCT with an alternative option to the bed closures that will be discussed at a public consultation meeting at Godalming Baptist Church on Thursday, November 24. The PCT is putting forward six options for consultation and the CCG is hoping its option will be included as the seventh. The CCG believes that beds at Farnham and Haslemere hospitals should remain open because they support the NHS local strategy that says that community based services are most cost-effectively delivered through community hospitals. The CCG has recommended that the PCT withdraws its bed closure proposals and instead saves costs by implementing short-term measures including keeping tighter control of prescription drugs, enforcing a non-clinical vacancy programme so no new employees are hired, reducing the use of bank and agency staff, and expanding the amount of work sent through diagnostic and treatment centres to allow for cost and efficiency savings. In the longer term, the CCG believes the PCT must sell off all excess land assets including derelict houses near to Farnham Hospital as well as well as plan for zero growth in emergency admissions, and use a greater number of practice nurses and third parties in chronic-disease management to prevent secondary care. Mr Hunt said: "We all understand that the PCT has a duty to manage its health and care services within a set budget, however, I am concerned that while it is trying to reduce its deficit, it has lost sight of its main priorities. "It should be striving to provide comprehensive rehabilitation services to the elderly and to deliver as much care as possible closer to home. I hope that the PCT board will allow our option to be put forward into the consultation and that in doing so, we will find a solution to its financial difficulties without having to cut front services." Jane Dale, interim chief executive of the PCT, said: "We have been working with members of the CCG for some time now and have always made it clear that we value their views. We do however need to ensure that any options we put forward in our consultation are properly thought through and will give patients the type of service we have described in our four-year strategy, both sustainable into the future and of high quality." The PCT's public consultation, Modernising Your Local Healthcare, takes place at 2-30 pm on November 24 at Godalming Baptist Church and will consider future services provided at Haslemere, Farnham, Milford and Cranleigh hospitals. • Further public meetings have been organised at Godalming Baptist Church (December 9 at 10-30 am), Farnham Maltings (December 19 at 2 pm) and at Haslemere Hall (January 19 at 2 pm).
