A MEETING is set to take place at the end of the month in Haslemere to address the huge cash crisis affecting local hospitals and health services. A massive overspend from last year of nearly £6 million, and a predicted shortfall this year of more than £9 million, has left Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust, (PCT) with a financial headache. SW Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt has already warned that this could mean "potentially devastating cuts in local health provision." With the need to achieve financial balance by the end of the financial year 2006/7, and no likelihood that the government will bail it out, the PCT is to set up a task group to "produce a robust financial recovery plan" that will enable it to achieve break- even within two years. Fears have been voiced that it could spell the end for Milford Hospital and that the PCT could target beds at Haslemere Community Hospital. PCT chief executive Elizabeth Slinn, who is on long- term sick leave, has already warned that if cost- cutting plans haven't worked by September, "it will be forced to review the use of community hospitals". Jeremy Hunt has called for a meeting with the interim PCT chief executive, Jane Dale, ahead of the public board meeting in the town on July 28. News of the meeting came after rumours that both Chris Grimes, the chairman of the PCT, and Jane Dale received letters from Patricia Hewitt the Secretary of State for Health telling the PCT to put its house in order. "The PCT can't reduce the amount of money spent on acute care and I am writing to Patricia Hewitt to tell her that the needs are so great in our area, continued Mr Hunt. Dr Nicky Lee, the chairman of The League of Friends of Haslemere Hospital, which saved the hospital from closure following a campaign in the late 1990s, said Haslemere people are ready to fight again. Dr Lee said: "We have already shown with campaigns that if the public make enough fuss and uses enough pressure, we can make sure that Haslemere Hospital is not threatened. "The PCT has a worrying tendency to look at community hospitals as an easy way of saving money. But community work doesn't go away and it is more expensive if it is carried out at the Royal Surrey." Dr Lee said that the numbers attending Haslemere's minor injuries department was increasing and work was going ahead on the provision of the day surgery. The task group to be set up to help the PCT includes clinicians and managers, intent on recovering £7.6 million this financial year and the remainder next year. The financial recovery plan will be discussed in public at 2-30 pm in the Haslemere Hall, on Thursday, July 28.
