ANOTHER ward at Fairfield Hospital is set to lose more beds and nurses in the second cut to services within the last month.

Staff have been informed of proposals to close two beds and redeploy five nurses from the coronary care ward, which cares for patients with serious heart problems.

The high dependency ward is being targeted as the Pennine Acute Trust carries out plans to close 250 beds across its four hospital sites in a bid to save money.

Ward One currently has ten beds with more than 20 members of staff who were told last week in a meeting with their manager and union representatives that a 30-day consultation had begun into the proposals.

Staff are expected to be moved elsewhere within the trust, which runs Fairfield, North Manchester General, Rochdale Infirmary and the Royal Oldham hospitals.

A spokesman for Pennine said Fairfield had been targeted because the ward has a lower occupancy rate than the other hospitals within the trust. A reduction of beds was unlikely to affect services'.

He said: "Currently, Fairfield has ten coronary care beds and figures from April 2005 to March 2006 show a lower occupancy rate than the other sites in the trust. Therefore, we should be able to reduce two beds without greatly affecting the service.

"The other Pennine Acute Trust sites each have fewer cardiac care beds. Rochdale Infirmary has seven, North Manchester General Hospital has six, and the Royal Oldham Hospital has five.

"We're confident that we have vacancies within the trust so we can redeploy staff affected."

News of the proposed bed closures comes weeks after staff were told of plans to close a rehabilitation ward for the elderly, which would see 27 beds lost nursing staff moved to other sites, most likely Rochdale Infirmary.

Health bosses again said Fairfield had been chosen due to lower bed occupancy rates - despite staff claiming the ward was always working to capacity.

Last week trust bosses agreed to delay the decision on closing Ward 30 by eight weeks to allow wider consultation.

It followed a backlash from Ward 30 nurses and the public who claimed the closure represented a significant change of service and was therefore subject to the provisions of the 2001 Health and Social Care Act which, under Section 11, requires all NHS trusts to consult with patients and the public before deciding whether to cut of close services.

A Ward 1 nurse, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Bury Times that - despite reassurances from management that their views would be listened to - morale on the wards was at an all-time low.

She said: "The atmosphere throughout the Pennine Acute Trust is dire, but this is the last straw. We are just hoping that we can make them see if a disproportionate number of staff are redeployed it will not be safe to keep the reduced number of beds."

It was revealed earlier this year that the trust, one of the largest in the country, is £28 million in debt and a financial recovery programme has been launched to tackle the deficit.

An estimated 325 posts are expected to be made redundant and up to 10 per cent of the trust's 2,500 beds will be reduced which bosses have said is in line with national plans to move more health services into the community.

The spokesman for Pennine added: "We began the 30 day consultation period with staff regarding changes to the coronary care ward at Fairfield on October 17. As with all the current changes, these proposals have been discussed at our partnership forum, which is made up of staff representatives. This is not a formal requirement, but we believe that it is the right thing to do to support staff.

"The proposal is part of the trust's financial recovery programme and is a temporary measure while we await the outcome of the Healthy Futures reconfiguration decision, which is expected from the local primary care trusts in December."

A provisional decision on Healthy Futures, aiming to bring more hospital services into the community, was made last month when health chiefs decided to close Rochdale Infirmary's Accident and Emergency department along with Fairfield's acute surgery services. It is provisional until a decision is made on the Making it Better proposals which could see Fairfield lose its maternity department and special care baby unit. The outcome of the two reconfigurations must be compatible before the final changes to services are made.