STAFF at an ageing hospital in west Suffolk have voiced fears that lives could be put at risk if it is closed before a planned £20 million replacement is built.

STAFF at an ageing hospital in west Suffolk have voiced fears that lives could be put at risk if it is closed before a planned £20 million replacement is built.

Angry workers at Sudbury's threatened Walnuttree Hospital say some elderly patients could not cope with the “trauma” of being moved out of the wards where some have spent more than a decade.

Chiefs at West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust fear the Victorian Walnuttree Hospital will fail a safety review at the end of the month due to fire risks - effectively closing down its 68-bed inpatient wards.

To add to the problem, the proposed new £20m hospital in Sudbury has been dogged by major delays and will not be open until 2007 at the earliest.

One Walnuttree worker, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the EADT: “Nearly all of the patients here are very elderly and we honestly think the trauma of moving them now could put lives at risk.

“This hospital should not be closed until we have a new hospital, which we have been promised for years.”

News of the planned closure has prompted West Suffolk MP Richard Spring to call local health bosses and other MPs in the county to an emergency meeting at the House of Commons to discuss what he describes as a “health service crisis.”

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