TENBURY MP Harriett Baldwin has pledged to continue to fight to secure the future of the town’s community hospital.
The West Worcestershire MP repeated her support for Tenbury Community Hospital following an NHS exercise to discuss reducing the number of beds at the popular hospital.
Harriett Baldwin offered her continued support after the Worcestershire Health and Care Trust, which runs the county’s community hospitals, published figures for the last two years showing that bed occupancy was 89.2 per cent in 2015 rising to 90.7 per cent in 2016.
“Our community hospitals are a precious local resource and we all welcome the chance to be cared for closer to our homes where possible,“ said Harriett Baldwin.
“The latest figures speak for themselves, showing that Tenbury’s hospital is running at near capacity, with the additional beds that were recently added. This simply is not the time to be discussing mothballing beds.
“In my view, the current version of the plan to reduce beds is not backed up by the evidence and with such high pressure on beds at the Worcestershire Royal, we clearly need to use our community hospitals more, not less.
“I hope that the people leading the review into this matter will look again and offer reassurance to local people about the future capacity at community hospitals.“
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