A FORMER nurse says she has serious concerns over cost-saving plans to cut hospital beds and staffing levels.

Jude Green, who worked as a mental health nurse for Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust before taking early retirement in 2011, fears a drive towards treating more people at home could lead to a shortage of beds and facilities for those patients who do still need them.

The trust is looking at ways to find savings of £8 million a year until 2017/18. It is looking at closing about 10 per cent of its 200 community hospital beds and shedding 300 of its 4,500 jobs.

Further bed closures could follow if a new model of delivering more care at home and in the community is deemed a success.

The trust maintains that closing beds will not detract the importance of the role community hospitals have to play in local healthcare.

But Mrs Green, from Meadow Road, Malvern, told your Worcester News she had grave concerns over the proposed model and what it could mean for people who need care.

“I quite agree that most people want to be treated in, or as close to home as possible,” she said. “Nevertheless, most people would also agree that whilst ideally wanting to remain at home, in-patient treatment is sometimes the best and safest option. The loss of 10 per cent of community hospital beds is not a figure to be taken lightly and equally, nearly seven per cent of jobs being cut is not insignificant.

“It seems beds are closed first and only then do we discover if we can do without them.”

A trust spokesman said: “It is also about ensuring people get the right care in the right place, and some people will continue to need and receive support and care in a community hospital setting.

“We do believe that as we care for more people at home the demand for beds will reduce, and we also believe that in community hospitals we should be providing a wider range of treatments which are less bed-based.” He said discussions about community hospitals are ongoing and formal decisions have yet to be agreed.