HEALTH care bosses have insisted that a reduction in the number of beds in a proposed new Minehead Community Hospital does NOT represent a cut in service.
A consultation document published this week by Somerset Coast Primary Care Trust proposes a total complement of 20 beds in the new hospital, compared with the present bed complement of 27 at the hospital in the town.
The Trust maintains this does not represent a reduction in service as the beds will be used much more intensively. People in West Somerset are to be asked for their views on a proposal to replace the ageing Minehead community hospital.
A 12-week consultation period will continue until mid-December.
But Trust bosses said this week while they were no closer to securing a suitable site or securing funding for a new hospital, expected to cost £17million, they hoped the new facility would be ready to receive patients by the first quarter of 2008.
For more on this and other stories, see this week's West Somerset edition of the County Gazette.
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