NHS money problems in Gloucestershire (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

NHS money problems in Gloucestershire

THE biggest shake-up to hit health services locally since the NHS was formed was announced this week.

Health chiefs are set to slash services across the county in a bid to balance the books and offset a £40million debt.

Under the proposals more community hospitals in the Cotswolds face an uncertain future with Moore Cottage Hospital in Bourton-on-the-Water and Moreton Hospital set to be replaced by one new facility.

The drastic changes announced at a meeting of NHS chief executives on Tuesday, include:

- Job cuts to frontline staff

- Likely bed closures at Bourton and Moreton

- Cut backs at Cirencester Hospital

- 25 percent of mental health beds to close

- A review of Cotswold community hospitals

- Streamlining of duplicate services, like maternity, to single sites In an official statement the chief executives of the county's PCTs and NHS trusts said tough decisions had to be made but said they were not targeting specific areas:

"We would ask Gloucestershire residents to recognise the pressures facing the local health community as a whole.

"Our proposals are not about any one area of service or any one community losing out. We can't 'cherry pick' individual services and look at them in isolation. We have to achieve an effective and affordable local health service."

Stephen Gollege, chair of West Gloucestershire PCT said: "In short the level of NHS provision is not affordable in light of the financial position in the county."

In what the health bosses are calling the 'rationalising' of the service, inpatient mental health care for adults and older people will be streamlined onto just two sites, likely to be Gloucester and Cheltenham.

Elsewhere acute services which are currently available at several sites across the county will be moved into a single hospital. In the long-term this could mean the closure of Stroud Maternity Hospital.

Although the chief executives would not put a finger on how many jobs will be lost it is likely to run into several hundred as services are streamlined and pared down to save costs.

Richard James, chief executive of Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust (PCT), said jobs would be lost ahead of the merger of the three Gloucestershire PCTs in October.

He said: "We are required, as part of the changes, to save £2.5m. That will be saved in using less office accommodation and employing less people. There will be a loss of jobs."

Mr James repeated his assurance that community hospitals in the Cotswolds do have a future, albeit it without inpatient care and with new, varied outpatient services, saying:

"All community hospitals have to work hard to earn their keep."

He said there was a real chance that the minor injuries unit at Cirencester could face cut backs or even night-time closure in a bid to cut the PCT's huge deficit, estimated at over £5m.

Mr James said: "All minor injuries units and their usage are being looked at to see if they are appropriate to keep open at night. There are no final decisions yet."

Meanwhile he said a consultation paper on the future of Moreton and Bourton's hospitals was currently being prepared and the closure of one or both hospitals could not be ruled out.

Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who spent the day in London on a protest about the closure of community hospitals attacked the cuts, voiced concerns over the future of day care facilities and the treatment of the district's MPs.

He said: "This is really appalling news for the Cotswolds. It is disingenuous of the Government, who supported community hospitals in their manifesto at the last election, and are now doing all they can to close them.

"I don't think this is the end of it. I feel there will be further cuts. All day care service in Cirencester and Moreton will be affected, it could even affect the viability of Cirencester Hospital."

The cuts have also been slammed by Gloucestershire County Councillor Barry Dare as a disaster.

He said: "These are shocking and savage proposed cuts that will substantially weaken the quality of medical care that people in Gloucestershire receive. Labour is hammering Gloucestershire's NHS into the ground.

"They have permitted mismanagement, hogtied our doctors in red tape and now are presiding over the most significant reductions in hospital services in a generation. I cannot overemphasise what bad news this if for Gloucestershire."

The proposals were due to be discussed by Gloucestershire County Council's overview and scrutiny committee as the Standard went to press.