CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save a hospital from closure have set up their own web site.The Save Our Felixstowe Hospitals group is using the web to promote their protest and publicise their meetings and events, urging residents to join the battle to keep the Bartlet.

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save a hospital from closure have set up their own web site.

The Save Our Felixstowe Hospitals group is using the web to promote their protest and publicise their meetings and events, urging residents to join the battle to keep the Bartlet.

Meanwhile, the group's chairman Roy Gray has criticised the move to merge all the Primary Care Trusts in Suffolk into one - effectively re-creating the old Suffolk Health Authority.

“It's like reinventing the wheel - it's absolutely ridiculous,” he said.

“It's going back five years to the days of the SHA. What I want to know is how much these five years have cost the tax payers in Suffolk because that money could have been used to save our hospitals and medical services. It's a shambles.”

The group's web site - www.saveourhospitals.felixstowecommunity.co.uk - is promoting its next big event, a public meeting to explain why proposed health cuts are not “changes for the better”, as they have been described by the PCT.

The aim will be to have a panel of experts giving their views on why Felixstowe's Bartlet Hospital must not be closed instead of health bosses answering questions.

The Health Crisis Meeting will take place on Friday September 16 at 7pm at St John's Church, Orwell Road, Felixstowe.

Mr Gray said: “Preparations for the meeting are going well and we hope around 600 people will turn up on the night to show their support for our health services.

“MP John Gummer has agreed to be on the panel, and we will also have doctors, UNISON representatives and other experts to talk about why they feel these plans are bad news.”

The PCT believes the Bartlet convalescent and rehabilitation unit will no longer be necessary in the future as it plans to send people home earlier from hospital to be looked after by teams of travelling carers.

The Bartlet would then be sold for conversion for luxury flats for around £3.5 million in order to cut the trust's multi-million pound debts.

Consultation is currently being carried out and the public are being urged to give their views. More than 15,000 have signed a petition protesting against the cuts.

WEBLINK: www.saveourhospitals.felixstowecommunity.co.uk

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