Big cuts to county's NHS services

Maternity services will be based at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital

Massive cuts to health services across Gloucestershire will see 500 job losses, community hospitals closed and maternity services moved to Gloucester.

The county's three Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and its NHS provider trusts face a deficit of £38m.

Under the plans, all maternity inpatient services will be provided from Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

Across the county, 240 hospital beds will be lost. Union officials have not ruled out industrial action.

These service changes are ill-conceived, rushed through without thought or evidence Mervyn Dawe, Unison

Paul Lilley, chief executive of the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "There simply isn't enough money to carry on as we are.

"We've got only two choices, we can either cut services or find smarter ways to provide services."

Stroud's Maternity Hospital will close this year as part of the plans.

The beds to go include those already closed at Fairford and Tetbury and others at Delancey Hospital.

Further bed reductions are proposed at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Cheltenham General Hospital.

Savings 'unpopular'

In the Forest of Dean the Dilke Memorial Hospital will close and in the longer term Lydney and District Hospital will be replaced.

Winchcombe Hospital is also ear-marked for closure as are Berkeley Hospital and the Sandpits clinic.

In a statement, the PCT and NHS trust chief executives in Gloucestershire said: "We know that the range of savings proposals will not be popular with everyone.

"We would ask the people of Gloucestershire to recognise the pressures facing the local health community as a whole and work with us to develop the best options for the future."

Unions have reacted angrily to the announcement warning of possible strikes.

Tanya Palmer, regional officer for Unison south west, said: "Unison will do everything in its power to safeguard its members' jobs and maintain the high standard of public health services now at risk, which could ultimately mean taking lawful industrial action."

Mervyn Dawe, branch secretary of Unison's Severn health branch, said the "effect on services to patients and service users, along with the local staff, is intolerable".

"These service changes are ill-conceived, rushed through without thought or evidence and fly in the face of much of the government's recommendations on services," he said.