160 community hospital beds at risk

Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust staff claim 64 per cent of current provision - about 160 of the 252 beds - should be cut.

A patient group has said the trust has lost sight of the fact it is dealing with vulnerable people.

But the trust said it believed the step was necessary and that the rate of hospital bed occupancy was "distorted".

The trust said beds should be replaced with home care and nursing homes in a bid to improve intermediate care for patients.

But in a report, due to be discussed by board members todaythurs, no clues are given about which of the county's nine hospitals are under threat.

Alison Rooke, Abingdon Town Council leader, said: "Any provision lost in south Oxfordshire is going to impact on Abingdon Hospital because it will mean shuffling people around. Saying social services will cope if hospitals close is complete rubbish."

Julian Hayton, chairman of Abingdon Hospital League of Friends, said: "As far as we're concerned, the beds at Abingdon are very necessary and we don't see care in the home replacing them."

Jonathan Coombes, PCT head of community hospital development and intermediate care, and provider services director Penny Astrop compiled the Community Hospital Stocktake report.

It followed a detailed review of hospitals in Bicester, Abingdon, Chipping Norton, Didcot, Witney, Wallingford, Wantage, Townlands in Henley, and Oxcom, at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford.

By assessing patient needs, they decided only 36 per cent needed hospital care, while a quarter could have been referred to nursing homes, and 28 per cent could have benefited from care in their own homes.

They said: "The current levels of occupancy of community hospital beds is highly distorted by this level of inappropriate placement and it is hard not to draw the conclusion that, as a system, we could well manage with fewer beds overall, provided there was sufficient alternative rehabilitation and care available at home and in care homes."