HOSPITAL chiefs have moved to reassure residents that Evesham Community Hospital is in good hands.

A meeting took place on Monday at Evesham Town Hall, in which a campaign led by local political parties expressed concerns about the future of Evesham Community Hospital.

The Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) say that changes will improve the hospital.

A Spokesman for the STP said: "Evesham Community Hospital is not at risk.

"It is really valued by the local community and by the health and care trust which runs it, and it is an important part of the future of how we will provide local services.

"It is home to the county’s specialist stroke rehabilitation ward which has only recently opened and in line with our strategy for all our community hospitals, we see the site doing more of the kinds of outpatient or day case activity which might traditionally have been provided from a larger acute hospital.

"In order to maintain resilient services within the hospital we need the best staff possible, and we are concerned about the effect any inaccurate claims or suggestions that the hospital is at risk could have on our ability to retain and recruit skilled staff.

"There are no plans in our updated STP to close any of the county’s community hospitals or recovery units listed above. In fact it is a long standing ambition to see them do more than they currently do.

"For example there are outpatient treatments for which you may have traditionally had to attend the larger acute sites which we think should be provided more locally in a community hospital.

"We have already shifted some of this activity, so you can already get a blood transfusion and other IV therapies from a community hospital, and we will be exploring more opportunities like this.

"In addition, any reductions in community bed numbers would be predicated on the work we are doing right now to improve those services which support people out of hospital.

"If we get this right we would expect over time the demand for community beds to reduce, and if demand comes down we would then look at the numbers of beds to see if reductions are appropriate.

"Any reductions in community bed numbers would only be possible once we have established the local neighbourhood teams and could clearly see demand for the beds coming down."