A top consultant at West Suffolk Hospital and an MP have joined forces to condemn attempts to undermine its services.

The region's Strategic Health Authority is conducting a review into hospitals in the East which could lead to changes and possible closures.

This week John Urquhart, consultant anaesthetist and chairman of the hospital consultants, said that doctors had an 'absolute determination' that the hospital should survive.

He also described as 'reprehensible' any efforts to close hospitals based on the political map of the region.

Mr Urquhart said: "There is an absolute determination among the staff that the hospital survives."
He added that Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley had 'extracted an agreement from the health minister that we should meet with him to talk over our case'.

"If any effort is made to downgrade or close West Suffolk the question has to be asked is that because of our political colours," said Mr Urquhart.

"This is our hospital and we have a good relationship with the people of Bury and West Suffolk. There are plainly going to be changes in the services that are going to be run and these need to be carefully thought through. I would not wish to preside over a hospital which is to be damaged beyond repair."
Mr Ruffley is tabling a question in the House of Commons when it resumes on October 9, asking for more details of the review.

He said: "People are concerned, not only potential patients but also the 2,000 to 3,000 men and women whose livelihoods rely on a fully functioning hospital in the fine form clinically that is the West Suffolk."

Mr Ruffley said he believed the hospital was in a healthier position due to its role as a teaching facility for post-graduate doctors at Cambridge University.

He has been promised a meeting with Andrew Burnham, the Minister of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt's deputy.

He said: "I know how important this is. The hospital is on my watch and I will not have anything happen to it."

He added that while there may not be closure of the A&E department, there could be erosion of hospital's facilities through 'salami slicing' caused by continual reviews and proposed cutbacks.
He added: "I cannot visualise a town as significant and vibrant as Bury St Edmunds which doesn't have a hospital at the West Suffolk site."