BROMSGROVE patients in need of eye care could have to travel to Kidderminster or Worcester if the fears of a local health council are correct.

Bromsgrove and Redditch Community Health Council (CHC) is worried that ophthalmic treatment at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch will be cut, following talks with the director for ophthalmic services, Paul Chell.

Members feel that he implied during the talks, the service would be reduced from the three sites of the Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust to just the Worcester Newtown site and Kidderminster Hospital.

In a letter to the new chairman of the trust, the acting chief officer, Moira Morris, explained the reduction of the service would be a great loss to the people in the area and may also be detrimental to patients.

She added: "Bromsgrove people do not wish to travel either to Worcester or Kidderminster for this service, as the very nature of eye conditions create difficulties in independence for patients and limits patient choice."

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust said: "The trust is carrying out a review of ophthalmological services in the county.

"A recommendation will be made to the trust board early in the new year and once that has been made it will go out to public consultation.

"This is not a financial review, it is a clinical one, to ensure that we are providing the best possible ophthalmic service in the county."