PATIENTS will suffer when the plug is pulled on Kidderminster Hospital's telephone switchboard next month in a "financially-driven" move, it has been claimed.

From September 12 all calls to operators - who currently book appointments and operations as well as monitoring hospital alarms and CCTV- will be routed to a new facility in the Alexandra Hospital, Redditch, to save up to £80,000 a year.

But Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor and switchboard staff both voiced fears patients would suffer from Redditch staff's lack of "local knowledge".

Dr Taylor added the expanding hospital should keep the switchboard because the new diagnostic and treatment centre - due to open later this year - will attract people from across the Midlands.

A Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman maintained the public should not notice a difference and would "continue to receive all the help and advice they need".

He added the savings will be invested in patient care - but this was challenged by Dr Taylor who claimed the money will go towards the trust's multi-million pound deficit.

The district MP said: "It's very sad and it's quite the wrong economy to make."

Redditch operators will transfer patients wanting to book Kidder-minster Hospital appointments to a new call centre on the Kidderminster site staffed by four of the six current operators, with one retiring and the other being made redundant.

However, switchboard supervisor Estelle Jones said: "The amount of people who ring up to see how to get here is huge - is somebody from Redditch going to know that?"

Kidderminster staff take more than 80,000 calls a month.

Mrs Jones added: "If Redditch has a problem with a call they won't be referring it back to us - we are just appointments.

"I had a GP on the phone expressing his horror at what's happened."

She went on to say other roles currently fulfilled at Kidderminster - including monitoring alarms triggered when medical gases run low, cardiac arrest machines and fire alarms - would be "better served" from the hospital as services expanded.

More than 2,000 patients and staff signed a petition to save the switchboard and Kidderminster Hospital League of Friends offered to fund it for at least 12 months.

"We would like to express our thanks to everybody - we had a hell of a lot of support from the League of Friends, the public and the people within the hospital," said Mrs Jones.

She attacked the switchboard staff's treatment, saying they had been under "a lot of pressure" as the service had been wound up over the last 12 months - but claimed operators had only been notified of the final closing date two weeks ago.

"A lot of them have been working seven days, 50 to 56 hours-a-week to provide the service which they are going to take away," she added.

Trust spokesman Richard Haynes said staff were informed of the closing date as soon it was known.

And he said: "While we were very grateful for the League of Friends' offer it would have been a short term measure at best."

He added the gradual transfer of switchboard services to Redditch would allow "parallel running" so the new staff could familiarise themselves with procedure and frequent queries.

Redditch operators will be equipped with maps of Kidderminster and specific questions will be referred to the relevant hospital department.

Mr Haynes argued the monitoring duties currently carried out by Kidderminster staff may even be handled more efficiently thanks to the "state-of-the-art" centre at the Alexandra Hospital.