The campaigners are urging concerned residents to pack the meeting, which will be held at Beverley Memorial Hall on Friday January 19, after hundreds of people joined this week's protest march through the town.

East Riding of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust has agreed to send representatives to the meeting, which starts at 7pm.

Campaigners say this is an opportunity for residents to put their own questions to health chiefs, who have launched a 14 week consultation on the future of local community services, including the controversial plans to axe beds at all the area's community hospitals - including the Westwood.

Councillor John Bird, chairman of the newly formed Beverley Health Action Group, which has organised the meeting, said: "We are not trying to trip up the PCT - we want straight and honest answers and we want the general public to hear them."

The PCT has previously come under fire for failing to hold a meeting in the town to discuss the proposals. It is planning four consultation meetings, the nearest to Beverley taking place at Tickton Grange on Saturday January 27.

Coun Bird said he welcomed the PCT's decision to attend the public meeting at the Memorial Hall, and hoped that as many local people as possible would go along.

The meeting will be chaired by retired judge Jack Walker, and health chiefs will be invited to make a presentation about their proposals before taking questions from the public.

The campaigners will also be posing some prepared questions in advance of the meeting, to which the PCT will respond on the night.

"This is an opportunity for people to come to the meeting and listen to the proposals, and ask questions," said Coun Bird.

Claire Wood, interim chief executive of the PCT, said: "The Beverley Health Action Group has approached the PCT to attend its meeting and we have confirmed we will be attending to present the proposals under consultation.

"The PCT strongly supports the valuable contribution community health services make to the health and wellbeing of the people we serve. The challenge for the future is to improve local access while ensuring that services are safe and sustainable in the long term.

"The purpose of undertaking this public consultation is to improve our decision-making process, by ensuring that decisions are soundly based on evidence, and that we take account of the views and experiences of those who may be affected by any change in service provision.

"We are encouraged by the interest that local communities are taking in their local health services and offer assurance that all views received will inform the final decision on the proposed model of care."

Beverley MP Graham Stuart, who joined protesters on the march, said the PCT has an obligation to listen and act on local consultations, not just carry them out.

He claimed that the trust's proposals 'fly in the face of public opinion', which is united on the need for NHS beds to remain close to people's homes.

SEVERAL hundred people braved a cold, blustery New Year's Day to march through Beverley in protest at moves to axe beds at the town's Westwood Hospital.

Crowds estimated at around 500 gathered at the Market Cross with banners calling for the hospital to be saved, before marching to its gates, where campaigners had hoped to hand over a protest petition.

Health officials declined a request to receive it on the day, which was a Bank Holiday, but the petition bearing more than 1,300 names was presented to them the following day.
Protesters are now planning to follow up the protest with a public meeting in Beverley Memorial Hall on Friday January 19, at 7pm.

John Bird, chairman of the Beverley Health Action Group, which was set up to fight the cuts, said the large numbers who turned out to take part in the march showed the enormous strength of feeling among people willing to fight to save local health services.

"The response was excellent," he said. "We hope people will now come along to the public meeting, to which we have invited the Primary Care Trust to come and answer questions."

Under the proposals by East Riding of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust, all beds would be removed from community hospitals in the area. The PCT has launched a 14-week formal consultation on the future of community services in the East Riding, which is due to be considered in March.

A large part of the Westwood Hospital site is currently up for sale and campaigners fear that the future of the hospital itself is now at stake.

They fear that people will be treated many miles away from their homes if the plans to axe community hospital beds go ahead.

Beverley MP Graham Stuart, who joined the protest march, said that the highest users of health care services are older people, who want to be visited by their families and friends.

"It makes a huge difference to their recovery - that is why it is so important that we have hospital beds in Withernsea, Hornsea, Beverley and Driffield, as well as rural areas," he told the protesters.

He maintained it was vital to show that there is massive public support for saving local hospitals, in the hope of making it 'politically impossible' for the Government to cut services, and he urged residents to write to the PCT expressing their opposition to its plans.

The protesters included people of all ages, some of whom had been treated at the hospital and others who had visited patients there.

"We had a friend who was in there for a while and received marvellous care. We might need it ourselves in time and I can't drive to get to another hospital. We lost our maternity hospital - that went and we will end up with nothing at all," said Mrs Rene James, of Conington Avenue, Beverley.

Molescroft resident Mrs Margaret Richardson said the hospital provides a vital service to the community. She had been treated at the Westwood after undergoing eye surgery, but had had to wait for four months for an appointment at Hull Royal Infirmary.

"Hull Royal Infirmary can't cope with the number of patients they have already - where will we go to be seen if the Westwood closes?" she asked.

The PCT proposals include removing all beds at community hospitals in Beverley, Driffield, Hornsea and Withernsea, with 50 NHS-funded beds provided in the private care home sector.

Its consultation offers four options for providing beds at Bridlington Hospital, or Goole Hospital, or Bridlington and Goole, or Bridlington and Goole with a third central site which would be Driffield, Beverley, or Market Weighton.

The PCT says the fourth option would require new building if Market Weighton or Beverley was the preferred site.

It is holding four consultation meetings, but campaigners are angry that the nearest to Beverley will be Tickton Grange on Saturday January 27, instead of a venue in the town.

• PICTURE: Some of the 100s of protestors who marched on New Year's Day.

See also Week in Pictures.