TOP Somerset NHS bosses faced a grilling from councillors following a shock decision to close 10 beds at Minehead Hospital.

Last Thursday the Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust announced that the beds would temporarily be moving to Williton Community Hospital due to staff shortages.

Members of the Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and the Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group faced a host of difficult questions at a heated West Somerset Council Scrutiny Committee meeting on Thursday.

Cllr Bryan Leaker was particularly outspoken on the matter, saying the Partnership were more interested in 'saving cash, not lives'.

"More than half of nurses jobs in Minehead/Williton are unfilled according to the Somerset Partnership's own statement to staff affected," Cllr Leaker said.

"There has been no consultation with the CCG or local GPs. They say this is a 'temporary closure' but two years ago when they temporarily reduced beds, they never reopened them!"

Andy Heron, chief executive officer of Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said: "We have exhausted all recruitment possibilities and continue to suffer from a national shortage of registered nurses.

"We cannot recruit enough permanent nurses to provide safe numbers of staff for each shift across both Minehead and Williton hospitals.

“We have therefore decided temporarily to consolidate inpatient beds into the one hospital for West Somerset. Staff and patients will start moving in the lead up to Christmas so that we can have better resilience for staff and safer numbers of nursing staff for our patients.

“We are working with staff, our patients, and their families and carers to ensure a quick, dignified and safe transfer between hospitals.

“This is a temporary solution. We hope to re-open Minehead’s hospital beds as soon as we can recruit more nurses but this is not likely to be for several months.

“I know this will cause concern to residents of Minehead and surrounding villages but this is a decision made in the best interests of safe care to patients and sustainable levels of staffing.”

The meeting also discussed the closure of six of the twelve stroke beds at Williton Community Hospital.

Ann Anderson, director of clinical and collaborative commissioning for SCCG, said she was confident that six stroke beds would be 'more than enough to cater for this population'.

Mrs Anderson said the CCG approved the closure of the beds as a parallel rehabilitation service, the Early Supported Stroke Discharge Scheme, is being delivered in West Somerset in people's own homes.

Cllr Mandy Chilcott said: "There was no discussion with us before these decisions were made. We have been trying to get someone from the CCG and Somerset Partnership to come and talk to us for months - you are a public body just like we are and should be held accountable.

"West Somerset finds itself in a really toxic situation, we are losing beds in hospitals, bus services, our ambulance service struggles, adult social care is creaking. Someone needs to listen to us."