MP Attends Packed Meeting to Try to Save Hospitals

Julian Lewis came down from Westminster on Monday specially to attend a packed meeting at the Lyndhurst Community Centre, called to discuss the future of the Fenwick and four other community hospitals in the area.

Members of the New Forest Primary Care Trust said that the 20 beds at the Fenwick Hospital, Lyndhurst would not reopen until October at the earliest. Dr. Lewis said: "It's absolutely clear to me that the primary care trust does not have the slightest intention of allowing them to reopen."

The trust's new community services strategy includes five options one of which would involve the closure of all 91 beds at the five community hospitals.

Lyndhurst District Council member Pat Wyeth, Cllr. Mel Kendal, the County Council member for the Division, and Cllr Maureen Holding who deals with health issues, all spoke in favour of the hospitals remaining open. Many other local residents also strongly agreed with this view

John Richards the trusts chief executive insisted that the whole matter is now the subject of consultation and no final decision has been taken. However in answer to questions from the floor he admitted that the sudden closure was due to critical staff shortages, and that no attempt had been made to recruit new staff to replace those that had left.

He also acknowledged that the trust was heavily in debt and that savings would have to be made.