HEALTH chiefs are facing more pressure to retain the current number of hospital beds in the Forest in any future facility.

At a meeting on Monday night (November 27) members of the public and professionals were united in opposing the reduction in beds being proposed for a new community hospital for the Forest.

But while there was agreement at Lydney Town Hall on the need for beds, there is a split between those who back the Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust’s proposal for a single, new hospital and those who want to see investment in the current facilities at Lydney and the Dilke at Cinderford.

In the consultation document, the trust suggests there is a local need for about 24 beds and not the current 47 between Lydney and the Dilke as many patients are from outside the Forest.

Dr Rosalind Bounds, a partner at the Lydney Health Centre, said she shared the concerns about the potential loss of beds.

She told the meeting, which was attended by around 60 people: “We need to go for the higher number.”

Dr Bounds, who stressed she was speaking in a personal capacity, said that when GPs were directly responsible for the admission of patients to the two hospitals, it was “almost 100 per cent Forest patients.”

She said: “I don’t believe that demand has gone away, I think there is more.

“What is needed are figures from the single point of access as to what the demand is and how many (patients) are in Gloucester Royal or Cheltenham who could be moved back to the Forest.

“The estimate should be on those figures, not on the percentage of beds currently occupied by Forest patients.”

She said her personal preference was for a single, new hospital that would attract staff and allow improved services and that view was shared by many GPs.

A member of the public asked: “How can the NHS possibly justify spending £11 million on a new hospital with only half the beds we have now?”

Chairman of the Friends of Lydney Hospital, Tony Midgeley, said the consultation was the beginning of public involvement and was about the ‘concept’ of the hospital – whether it should be a single site or whether the current facilities should carry on. It is not about the location.

But former councillor Bill Hobman said there was not information in the consultation document to make a decision.

He said: “I really wonder, given the topography and lack of public transport how we can say one hospital will suffice.

“We are going from two hospitals to one with fewer beds – I don’t understand how you can make a decision on that with the information that has been given.

“We need more beds, not fewer.”

Retired Lydney GP Dr Roy Sharma said that, planning for 20 years ahead, two hospitals made sense but he thought the argument about transport was weak.

Another member of the public said the current hospitals had “been underfunded for years.”

She added: “We need to fight for our local hospitals which we need and want.”

Forest district councillor Graham Morgan (Labour, Cinderford West) said as many people as possible should respond to the consultation which closes on Sunday, December 10.

He added: “I hope people will fill in the forms – we have got to maintain those beds.

“It is only when people pressure comes on that anything gets sorted out.”

Similar meetings are planned for 7pm at the Belle Vue Centre in Cinderford tonight (Wednesday) and the Main Place in Coleford tomorrow (Thursday).