THE closure of a ward at Haslemere Hospital over the Christmas holidays has caused an outcry from local groups and politicians.

The announcement was made by the Guildford and Waverley NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT) to help plug a potential £4 million overspend.

With three-quarters of a million pounds of savings still to be found before the end of the financial year, the decision was taken to closed the 16-bed Elizabeth rehabilitation ward from December 19 to January 5.

Patients will either receive care at Milford Hospital, nearly 10 miles away, or in the remaining open ward in the Godwin Unit at Haslemere Hospital.

This week, Dr Nicky Lee, the chairman of the League of Friends, which helped save the hospital from the threat of closure only three years ago, said the organisation "was very disappointed" at the decision.

"This will cause real distress and inconvenience to many families and their elderly relatives in this area. Milford Hospital is a difficult hospital to get to by public transport even when a full service is running and the loss of beds means some will lose the care they need," said Dr Lee.

"It is a shame that when savings have to be made it is always the front-line services that are cut rather than reductions at administrative level.

"We hope the PCT will guarantee that the beds will reopen after Christmas."

The main fear, said Dr Lee, was "that Haslemere Hospital has been under threat since the 1980s, despite the fact that the population made its wishes known with a petition of 10,000 signatures that it wanted to keep its local hospital beds."

Dr Lee, who is an NHS GP in Guildford and a private Haslemere GP, was also concerned that the £250,000 set aside for the hospital's new minor injuries department building, which had been delayed, could be lost because of the overspend.

Criticism of the decision has come from local MP Virginia Bottomley, who has written to John Hutton, a Minister of State in the Department of Health, about closure of the ward which normally cares for elderly patients.

"Surely they are the most vulnerable and needy over the Christmas period," said Mrs Bottomley in her letter.

"Many elderly people in my constituency are concerned about coping with illnesses associated with the winter months. To know they might not even have a local hospital bed available for themselves or a relative, is an added, unnecessary fear for them."

Mrs Bottomley's comments were echoed by Jeremy Hunt, the prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate for SW Surrey.

"I am really cross about it, when there is so much funding going into the NHS at the moment. Why is it then that hospital wards are having to close at such a critical time of the year? In this unprecedented expansion of the health service, community hospitals should be thriving," said Mr Hunt.

The parliamentary spokesman for SW Surrey Lib Dems, Simon Cordon, has also written to the Department of Health.

In his letter to the Dr John Reid, the Secretary of State, Mr Condon questions why the PCT should be closing the rehabilitation ward "not on service or clinical grounds, but to help address a historic deficit" which he claims was inherited from its predecessor organisation, the West Surrey Health Authority.

"Matters are now reaching the point where Surrey's health services are potentially below the safety net. I hope you are able to satisfy me on two points. First that the government will review this historic debt and underspend with a view to writing it off. Secondly that forcing our PCT to inherit the debt of a different and now defunct organisation is actually legal and meets the standards required by the Audit Commission," he said.

A PCT spokesman confirmed on Wednesday that building work on the minor injuries department building would start before March, 2004.

She said there were new health initiatives due to start at Haslemere Hospital in January, the first of which would bring improvements for patients in the treatment of orthopaedics.