Save The Alex campaign public meeting this Friday (From Bromsgrove Advertiser)

Save The Alex campaign public meeting this Friday

11:40am Tuesday 4th September 2012 in Local

FOLLOWING calls from concerned Bromsgrove residents the Save The Alex campaign is to hold a public meeting in town this Friday.

The event, designed to give people the latest information on the fate of the Alexandra Hospital, follows a public rally held in Redditch which saw more than 1,500 people attend.

Also present will be members of the Worcester Acute Hospitals Trust, which runs the Alex and has been criticised in the past for not turning up at other events.

It can be confirmed that Eamonn Kelly, chief executive of NHS Worcestershire and Penny Venables, chief executive of the trust, will be at the meeting.

Neal Stote, from the campaign, said: "This will be an opportunity for the people of Bromsgrove to find out more about the current health service review and the risks to the Alexandra Hospital.

“They not only will be able to question Worcester Acute Hospitals Trust, which have agreed to attend, but also their MP Sajid Javid and district council members on the proposals."

The trust, which also runs the Worcester Royal and Kidderminster hospitals, must plug a £50 million shortfall with the knowledge that running services as they are is no longer viable.

To that end a joint services review was set up to decide how future services will be provided at all three hospitals in the future - a move which ould see the Alex stripped of its A&E or closed.

Mr stote added: “The trust held their meeting in the middle of a working day, I hope the timing of our meeting will mean we get a much higher turn out meaning residents can tell the trust, their MP and their council leaders, what they think."

The meeting, at Bromsgrove Methodist Centre on Stratford Road, starts at 6.30pm tis Friday, September 7.

For more information on the Save The Alex campaign, visit redditchadvertiser.co.uk or savethealex.co.uk .