SW SURREY MP Jeremy Hunt has continued his fight to save 26 local hospital beds 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 to temporarily close 51 community care beds across Waverley, of which 10 are at Farnham Hospital and 16 at Haslemere Hospital. At a meeting last month, the HSC decided that the PCT needed to consult formally on its plans to close temporarily the beds 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 reached a unanimous decision to proceed with the temporary axing of the beds and although the 16 beds in the Elizabeth Ward at Haslemere Hospital will be immediately reopened for another purpose, the 10 beds at Farnham Hospital are not due to reopen until April 2006. This decision by the PCT has been fiercely criticised by many local officials and Jeremy Hunt has pledged to do all he can to keep the beds at Farnham and Haslemere hospitals 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 November 24. At present there are six options the PCT is putting forward for consultation and the CCG is hoping its option will be included as the seventh. The CCG believes that hospital 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 Farnham Hospital, 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 they are trying to reduce their deficit, they have lost sight of their main priorities. "They 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 their financial difficulties without having to cut front-line services." The PCT has promised to consider the CCG's proposals. 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", will take place at 2-30 pm on November 24 at Godalming Baptist Church and will consider the future services provided at Farnham and Haslemere hospitals, as well as services at Milford and Cranleigh hospitals. In addition to this, further public meetings have also 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).
