MORE than 50 beds and about 50 jobs are to go at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Chief executive Peter Herring insists the cuts are the result of greater efficiencies and nothing to do with the £4m savings sought by cash-strapped NHS funders.
He says the loss of 53 beds by closing a surgical ward and a cardiology ward from September will not affect the number of patients treated or the quality of care.
But health watchdogs are keeping an open mind, saying the acid test will be whether the hospital can cope with winter bed pressures caused by flu bugs and falls in slippery conditions.
Mr Herring said: 'It is nothing to do with the financial recovery plan. It's because of improved efficiency in putting patients through the system and on that basis we shouldn't be keeping open beds that we don't feel are necessary.'
The chief executive said medical advances meant fewer beds were needed because patients did not need to stay as long and many could be treated as day cases.
He added: 'It's things like the speed at which patients get diagnostic tests during the course of their stay. If we can identify what is wrong with them, they can be treated more rapidly and then discharged.'
Mr Herring said the intention was for permanent staff working on the affected wards to be relocated within the hospital and the 50 posts being shed would not necessarily all be associated with the ward closures.
He said the jobs would go from areas such as nursing, cleaning, administration and possibly corporate support. Temporary positions would be targeted firstand, whereappropriate,othersmay be offered voluntary redundancy or early retirement to avoid compulsory redundancies.
Mr Herring said in some respects the hospital would be 'more flexible' in its ability to deal with a sudden influx of patients, because spare wards would be available. No further bed reductions are planned.
Mr Herring said the debt-ridden Primary Care Trusts, which fund treat-ment, aimed to reduce hospital admissions in an attempt to lop £4m from the Countess' budget but this had not yet happened. If and when there were fewer patients through the door he could look at where cuts might be made.
Geoff Ryall-Harvey, of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum, said of Mr Herring's stance: 'What he says is potentially very true but the acid test will be the winter bed pressures.'
Surgeon George Foster, who is also chairman of the Chester division of the British Medical Association, said he had not had to cancel any operations as a result of temporary bed closures, now made permanent, and nor had his colleagues.
