Hospital report reveals debt fear

A confidential report which sparked a review of hospital services and led to nearly a year of protests across Surrey and Sussex has been revealed - reports the BBC.

The report to NHS managers in 2005, seen by BBC South, said health services in Surrey and Sussex were "financially unsustainable".

They were heading for debts of between £350m and £700m by 2009, it said.

South East Coast Strategic Health Authority said it had since taken action (cuts) which they expect to produce a surplus.

The report, by management consultants McKinsey, was obtained by a member of the public under the Freedom of Information Act.

It made a number of suggestions for reducing the health authority's potential debts, including cutting the number of qualified nurses by 6%.

It also suggested changes to acute Accident and Emergency departments, including allowing only patients arriving in 999 ambulances to enter.

Others would have to go to emergency care centres.

Fit for the Future has led to fears about potential cuts to A&E and maternity services at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, Worthing and Southlands Hospitals, the Princess Royal at Haywards Heath and the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford.

The only firm proposals so far put forward are in East Sussex, where either Eastbourne District General Hospital or the Conquest, in Hastings, could lose its maternity unit.

A public consultation is under way on which town will have the county's main consultant-led centre.