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With less than a week remaining before inpatients are moved out of Surbiton Hospital, some staff are still in the dark about their future.

One employee who has served 23 years under the trust has been made redundant. Stephen Woolveridge, who worked as a porter and had his contract transferred from the PCT to contractors in July, was last week told he would lose his job.

Helga Lock, hospital receptionist, said: "There is a very different atmosphere around here. Everyone is very sad and it has been upsetting seeing the relatives of patients distraught about the decision.

"There is a sense of something finishing that most people don't feel should be finished."

Patients will be moved from the site next Tuesday and Wednesday. The 17 intermediate patients will go to Tolworth Hospital and seven continuing care patients will be transferred to Hobkirk House in New Malden. The remaining 10 beds will also move to Tolworth.

Some nurses who work with continuing care patients claim they have still not been told where they will be relocated, but only Mr Woolveridge is set to lose his job.

The trust said that all Curnock ward staff have had individual meetings with their managers to discuss the new arrangements and that six or seven staff nurses and three health care assistants are to move to nursing homes with patients.

A local GP, a locum who has worked in many of the borough's practices, has said the move will put patients at unnecessary risk.

Dr Jane Bowskill who has worked in Kingston for 25 years said: "I think the dangers of disturbing elderly patients shouldn't be underestimated. The risks of them developing other illnesses or even not surviving the move are quite high."

Dr Bowskill claimed the trust's decision was purely financial and also warned that patients transferred to nursing homes would experience a reduced level of care.

She said: "There is no way people can get the same level of care in nursing homes because of the staff to patient ratio. Also, at Surbiton Hospital, if a patient needs extra treatments such as physiotherapy they can be wheeled down the corridor what will they do in a nursing home?"

A spokeswoman for the PCT said that should any patients require additional therapy, they would be referred via their GP.

1:39pm Thursday 24th November 2005

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