Local Hospital One of 'Most Vulnerable' in Lib Dem Survey

11.26.46am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 31st Jul 2006

A national survey by Liberal Democrats of NHS Trusts shows that the West Middlesex is one of the 16 most vulnerable hospital trusts in the country to loss of services and cut backs. Despite having new buildings and long term modernisation plans the Hospital has a history of financial difficulties, as have some local Primary Care Trusts - notably Hounslow - but the real concern is that the Hospital has very high "reference costs" (ie low efficiency) which makes it very vulnerable under the new "payment by results" system when it will face competition from Independent Sector Treatment Centres.

Vincent Cable MP said: "As a support of the Hospital and its staff I don't want to encourage alarmist speculation. But there clearly is a problem: that if the Government really is serious about making market forces and competition work in the hospital sector the weakest and costliest hospitals will go to the wall. Although it is inconceivable that the Government could allow a newly built hospital like the West Middlesex to close, it is not too difficult to see how the next few years could see some very painful cuts and belt tightening."