Thousands in NHS protest

They showed the strength of feeling of local people amid fears that Worthing Hospital could be downgraded or even closed. More than 800 campaigners, including TV Countdown quiz show host Des Lynam, who lives in Worthing, packed the Pavilion Theatre for a public meeting. Paul Holden and Siobhan Ryan report on the biggest protest seen in Worthing for decades.

Barbara Metcalfe only came out of Worthing Hospital last week, having undergone a knee operation. Sitting in a wheelchair, she was clearly in some discomfort.

But Barbara, dressed in a skeleton outfit, signifying the death of the NHS, was determined to take part in last night's demonstration against possible cuts to services at Worthing Hospital and Southlands Hospital, Shoreham.

Barbara, 58, of Coldharbour Lane, Patching, near Worthing, said: "It is disgraceful because they have made everybody at Worthing Hospital fear for their jobs and their livelihoods, and made all the people in the area frightened that there will be no facilities."

Dancing around her were three other "skeletons". They were brothers Charlie and Henry Mason, aged eight and five, and Benjamin Stevens, five, all of The Street, Patching.

The bone-shaking campaigners were born at Worthing Hospital, and, as boys will be boys, had attended the casualty department several times.

Charlie and Henry's mum, Helen, 42, warned that people would die unnecessarily if patients had to transfer to either St Richard's Hospital in Chichester or the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Heidi Stevens, 39-year-old mum to Benjamin and also seven-year-old Victoria, who was dressed as a doctor, said: "It is diabolical really. Worthing has a nice new hospital and it must remain open."

Birgit Bendle, 65, secretary of the Butterflies Breast Cancer Support Group, which meets at Worthing Hospital, travelled from her home in Broadford Bridge, Billingshurst, to take part in the demonstration.

She said breast cancer patients felt desperate because Worthing was a wonderful hospital where the care was second to none. Nobody wanted to travel to Brighton, but she feared Worthing's demise was a "done deal".

The 4,000 demonstrators (one estimate was as high as 10,000) marched along the promenade from starting points, near the Aquarena swimming pool in the east and the bottom of George V Avenue in the west, to the Pavilion Theatre for a public meeting.

David Dean, 51, a nurse at Worthing Hospital for the past nine-and-a-half years, said: "Morale is awful. Staff don't know which way to turn. People just need answers."

Gill Hunter, 45, a surgical ward clerk at Worthing, said: "I blame the Government. They have put more money in, but it is not enough."

Staff nurse Tanya Green, 39, said: "If someone has a heart attack or a road traffic accident and need to get to either Chichester or Brighton you could be dead by the time you get there. It is literally a life or death situation."

The protesters included a woman with a trumpet playing Land Of Hope And Glory, a pensioner in a cardboard hat shaped like a wartime tin helmet, draped in a Union flag, and Sompting Village Morris dancing troupe, who performed outside the Pavilion as both marches converged.

Campaigners rattled buckets marked "fighting fund" as people, most of whom had already signed a petition now containing more than 10,000 names, chanted "Save Our Hospital" and "Hands Off Our Hospital".

With all 800 seats in the Pavilion Theatre filled, the bulk of the protesters assembled in nearby Steyne Gardens to listen to the debate, which started off with loud applause, especially when senior clinical staff were identified by coun Tom Wye, Mayor of Worthing, who chaired the meeting.

However, senior health managers Candy Morris and Steve Phoenix, who argued that a cap had to be put on costs, were interrupted by hecklers.

Coun Wye received one of the loudest cheers when he read out a cross-party motion agreed by every single member of Worthing Borough Council, which strongly opposed any closures of facilities at Worthing Hospital.

The motion stated: "The council believes that, given the elderly population, the diabolical road infrastructure, and the Government-imposed house-building programme, which will result in many more families moving to Worthing, the town deserves and requires improved medical facilities.

"With a population of 100,000 residents, the largest town in West Sussex, and the high usage of the hospital, any closure, or downgrading, will result in people not receiving urgent, and in many cases, life-saving medical treatment. The council will resist, by any legal means, the closure or downgrading of any facilities.

"This council calls on the Department of Health, the NHS Executive, the Strategic Health Authority, and the Primary Care Trust to ensure that instead of patients, doctors and nurses being moved to where NHS money is available, the NHS money is moved to Worthing so that doctors and nurses can continue to dedicate their skills and care to local patients of all ages.

"A delegation comprising members from each party will go to Westminster to meet the Minister of Health and appropriate advisers to make known the views of Worthing residents.

"It is likely that a further public meeting will be held in the early autumn when more information about the hospital options and proposals should be available."

Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, said it was the largest demonstration he had ever known in Worthing, and pointed out that Southlands Hospital in Shoreham faced similar threats to its future.

He said it was in nobody's interests for either the casualty department at Worthing or Chichester to close.

Mr Loughton argued that people in Sussex got a raw deal, with residents in the north of England receiving £1,450 per head in health care per year compared to £1,250 in the south.

Worthing had the highest population over the age of 85 in the country, and lots of pockets of deprivation.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott wanted another 58,000 homes built in West Sussex over the next few years so hospitals should be expanding to cope with an increasing population, not shrinking.

Mr Loughton said Worthing and Southlands were good hospitals but faced a death by a thousand cuts despite the fact they were the largest employer in the area.

He was angry that decisions on the future of West Sussex hospitals were being made "behind closed doors".

Other speakers included Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley.

Coun Wye revealed that Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt had been invited to attend but declined because she was out of the country and the Whitehall department could not send a stand-in. He said: "I wanted to ask her, If this is the finest year the NHS has ever had, why are we having this meeting?'"

The South East Coast Strategic Health Authority (SHA) has ordered a review of all hospitals and NHS services across Sussex as part of efforts to save more than £100 million.

It says no proposals have been drawn up yet and a formal public consultation is not expected until around October. However, confidential briefings earlier this year revealed almost every hospital in the county was at risk of losing some services.