Will operations have to be done at home?

Dr Venn and Dr Forni are both intensive care consultants at Worthing Hospital, and compiled the report after examining plans by the Strategic Health Authority and Primary Care Trust's (PCTs) in Surrey and Sussex, which recommend making healthcare provision more community-based.

The consultants claim that community care is expensive and the public, although welcoming it, do not want community care at the expense of hospitals.

Dr Venn said: "There are a lot of initiatives to promote community care we should push forward but they're not cost-effective and they should be an add-on to hospitals, not an alternative."

He said many patients welcomed community care because it meant they could spend more time in their own homes.

He added that he had looked at managed care programmes for people with chronic heart conditions. They had resulted in patients spending less time in hospital but were not financially efficient.

He said: "If hospitals close, where will the operations take place? In people's homes?

"If Worthing Hospital closes there is no hospital in the area which has the resources to treat the 1,000 patients we treat daily."

For full story see West Sussex Gazette November 22