UPDATE: Health chiefs in Herefordshire have moved swiftly to bring clarity over claims by a Ross-on-Wye by-election candidate that the town’s community hospital is to become “bedless”.

They have confirmed that there are NO plans for Ross Community Hospital to lose all its beds.The petition, ‘Keep Ross-on-Wye’s Community Hospital Beds’ was created by a local resident, Julian Utting, on Sunday, February 26th.

The Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) for Herefordshire and Worcestershire sets out a vision for the provision of 21st-century healthcare for local people.

This will involve greater use of technology and better use of resources to keep people well enough to prevent them needing to spend time in hospitals and helping them to manage their own conditions in their own homes and treating them closer to their home when they do need care.

“It’s all about making common-sense improvements in areas that matter to people - like making it easier to see a GP, speeding up cancer diagnosis and offering help faster to people with mental ill health,” said Alison Talbot-Smith, Consultant in Public Health and Director of Transformation for One Herefordshire at Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

The petition, demanding that Ross-on-Wye Community Hospital is not made ‘bedless’ has been created on the website: change.org.

Mr Utting, who is also standing in the Ross-on-Wye by-election, told the Gazette that he was spurred into action after he read the sustainability and transformation plan (STP), a document that has been put forward by health services in Herefordshire, which considers changes to the local NHS over the next five years.

Mr Utting said that upon reading the STP, he was concerned that beds in community hospitals across the county could be cut over the next five years.

He added that with the cuts, there is the fear that some community hospitals could face closure.

“I think it’s so wrong,” Mr Utting told the Gazette. He said that the community hospitals provide a great halfway house for people who need looking after when they are still too ill to return home after a stay in Hereford County Hospital.

He added that when a relative is moved to a community hospital from the county hospital, friends and relatives will find it easier to visit them, the costs of travel to Hereford and parking costs outside the hospital can be “astronomical.”

He added: “I want to see the Community Hospital expanded and embrace technology to allow more patients to be treated locally.”

Once local people have had a chance to sign the petition online, it will be delivered to the CEO of the Wye Valley Trust, to show that Ross Community Hospital is a much-loved asset in the area.

Alison Talbot-Smith, added: "Within the STP we are clear that we have some work to do on redesigning our community services as a whole to enable us to provide this kind of care closer to home and support people in their own homes. “But as regards community hospital beds, there are no specific plans as we have not yet undertaken our engagement process,” added Alison. In the coming months there will be a robust engagement process to understand the needs and views of the population – to enable commissioners and providers of health and care services to identify options for change. “As part of that we will be engaging with the public, patients, and clinicians across the county, including Ross-on-Wye,” said Alison. “Once undertaken, that engagement process will identify options for change on which we will then undertake formal public consultation, ensuring all stakeholders are consulted.“We would like to reassure people that at this time no decision has been made on any aspect of community services and that no decision will be made be made without full public involvement.”The full STP, along with a summary and a survey for local people to complete and give their views, can be found by visiting www.hacw.nhs.uk/yourconversation