FEARS are growing over possible plans to dramatically scale down services at Crawley Hospital.

Staff say many key services could be moved to East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, as part of restructuring plans.

This follows a series of briefings from managers of Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which was formed when Crawley and East Surrey hospitals merged in April last year.

Staff claim proposals include scaling down casualty so all emergency cases go to Redhill and reducing maternity services with no deliveries at Crawley.

Other plans could include relocating intensive care to Redhill and moving Jumbo children's ward to Redhill.

Nurses also fear that the number of beds at Crawley could be cut from 358 to 120.

The proposals were to be publicly announced on Monday but the meeting had to be postponed over fears it could influence voting in the forthcoming European elections. A new date is to be arranged.

No-one was prepared to comment today at the Trust headquarters in Redhill.

Community Health Council chief officer for the area, Victoria West, said she had heard the rumours but had not been given any information about proposed changes.

Trust Chief Executive Isobel Gowan said she was not prepared to discuss the proposals until they go out for public consultation.

She expected this to be around June 14.

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