A HOSPITAL'S only social club looks certain to close because it cannot pay £12,000 in rent demanded by the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, it has been revealed.

Many of the club's 600 members are angry at the news - fearing staff morale at the hospital could plummet if it shuts.

Club chairman Bob Tarrant said: "Because we are paying out so much money we are not getting enough in to survive. It is not a viable proposition because of the high rent."

The rent, although heavily subsidised by the hospital, has risen with inflation during the past few years. Now staff are set to be without a club until a planned state-of-the-art sports complex is built in the next few years.

Mr Tarrant added: "I am not happy about it. I think we need to keep the sports and social club on site. There is talk there will be a sports complex on the site, but I would have liked the sports and social club to survive until it was built. We could definitely survive if the rent was lower." Club steward Tony Bailey has been made redundant and then rehired as casual labourer prior to the proposed closure. Mr Bailey had been in the post for 16 years.

The hospital trust is looking for a developer to buy its land at a cut-price rate and build and manage a new sports complex. The centre would be used by staff and for rehabilitating patients.

Mike Fleming, trust personnel director, said: "Social clubs appear in themselves to be on the way out in hospital environments anyway. There has been a reduction in the number of people using the social club on the John Radcliffe site, and as a result it is not able to pay its way."

The total rent of the social club is actually £21,000 a year, which the hospital trust subsidises by around £10,000. The future of the club building has not been decided yet.

Mr Fleming said:

"The trust has got to use its property assets as much as it can to maximise its income. It is that income that underpins the services we provide for the patients."

An emergency meeting was called by the social club committee on Thursday night to announce the proposed closure, expected to be by this December.

One club member, who refused to be named, said: "It is a staff amenity. I have been there eight years. It is something they advertised as a perk of the hospital.

"The JR charge the social club rent of £12,000 a year, which is crippling the club, which is why it has got to close down."

He added: "They are always saying how low staff morale is. If you take away a staff amenity as well it will be worse."

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