PEOPLE in Bromsgrove and surrounding areas will suffer if vital services including accident and emergency are transferred from Redditch's Alexandra Hospital to Worcester as part of swingeing cuts aimed at saving up to £30m a year, it is claimed.

Other big departments which could move early in 2006 in order to centralise services at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, include obstetrics, maternity, cancer treatment and children's services.

Bromsgrove's MP, Julie Kirkbride, is angry and this week called the proposals put forward for discussion by cash-strapped Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust 'scandalous and savage.'

She also pledged to back a campaign by your No1 community paper the Advertiser/Messenger to oppose the proposed plans which - if adopted - would bring hardship, misery and inconvenience to hundreds of local families.

But trust chairman Michael O'Riordan promised the changes will not compromise patient safety and not reduce the quality of patient care.

Faced with mounting financial problems and with the Government refusing to bail it out, the trust last week outlined a 'menu' of proposals designed to save up to £30m from its 2006/7 budget.

The trust claims its problems are made worse by it having to provide some clinical services at three different hospitals.

The proposals, drawn up by consultants, were received with widespread dismay in the Bromsgrove area. However, health chiefs are anxious to point out the public will get a chance to have its say.

Miss Kirkbride is concerned the plans also leave the future of the Princess of Wales hospital unclear.

"The scale of these cuts is savage and makes a mockery of the idea of a local health service," she said.

"A and E departments at Redditch and Worcester are hardly able to cope as it is. Families do not want a 50-mile round trip for maternity and children's services, nor do cancer sufferers want to travel for chemotherapy.

"I cannot imagine what planet these outrageous plans have dropped from."

She is calling on health bosses to explain themselves at a public meeting she is arranging at the Council House on a date yet to be fixed.

"The Advertiser/Messenger is absolutely right to launch a campaign to stop these disgraceful cuts and I shall work hand in hand with them," she continued.

"We must do everything we can to resist the downgrading of our local hospital and demand a fair deal for the people of Bromsgrove."

Bromsgrove District Council has asked its officers to find out the facts before it decides what, if any, action to take.

Meanwhile council chairman, Cllr Jill Dyer (Con-Drakes Cross and Walkers Heath), is concerned for the hundreds of residents in north east Worcestershire, many of them elderly, for whom the Alex is a few minutes' drive away or is accessible by bus.

She said travel time to A and E 25 miles away could endanger lives.

"There are no buses from Wythall to Worcester, and the Rural Rides scheme does not extend that far. Many face a 50 mile round trip," she added.

What do your think? If your life has been saved by having quick access to A and E at the Alex we want to hear about it. Write, call or e-mail at our usual address.