Hereford and South Herefordshire MP Jesse Norman has called for an immediate stop to plans for the South Warwickshire Foundation Trust to take over Hereford’s County Hospital and the Wye Valley Trust. He is also calling for a public meeting for local residents to be informed of NHS plans.

The County Hospital has recently been temporarily left without key members of senior management. In recent weeks the Wye Valley Trust Chair Museji Takolia has abruptly stepped down, while it has been announced that the Chief Executive, Richard Beeken, is being moved to another job. Mr Norman said that Dale Bywater of NHS Improvement has been charged with helping the Hospital to emerge from Special Measures, on which it has been partnered by the South Warwickshire Foundation Trust.

The Care Quality Commission is expected to report next week on the Hospital’s progress. But it now appears that the Board may be asked to approve a formal tie-up with the South Warwickshire Foundation Trust as early as this Friday, October 28th, without public notification or consultation.

Mr Norman said: "I am very concerned at this information, and am calling for an immediate halt and a full and open discussion of any proposals by NHS Improvement for the County Hospital.

"The proposed link with the South Warwickshire Foundation Trust appears to amount to nothing less than a takeover of our Hospital, at a time when its Chair has just left and its Chief Executive has been moved by NHS Improvement itself.

"To compound matters still further, there has apparently been no warning and no consultation with staff, with patients’ groups or with the general public, and no consideration of other options. As a result, we have absolutely no idea what these plans are, how they would work, who would be affected by them, what commitments the South Warwickshire Foundation Trust would make to the Hospital, and above all, what the impact would be on patients in Herefordshire.

"Under no circumstances should the Hospital or its board or staff reach, or be encouraged by NHS Improvement to reach, any agreement until these concerns have been addressed in a proper and orderly way.

"It is widely hoped that the Hospital will be taken out of Special Measures by the CQC next week. If so that will be great cause for celebration, and testimony to all the work of the doctors, nurses and other staff there.

"It will also be exactly the moment when NHS Improvement should be having a long and careful look at how to build up and invest in the County Hospital for the future. Instead, it is trying to push ahead at huge speed with its own plans, and leaving us all in the dark." A spokesperson for NHS Improvement said: “Wye Valley NHS Trust has made progress recently and improved the services it provides to patients in the area and the way the trust is run. We are working with the trust’s Board on how best to make sure it gets the support it needs to continue improving and what can be done to ensure the long-term future of the services that its patients rely on.”