VALE MP Peter Luff has put the proposed closure of the Macmillan beds at Evesham at the top of his campaigning agenda against the PCT's cuts, saying closure would be "an insult to the generosity of local people over many years".

He said the proposal is the principal reason why the cuts package put forward by the PCT must go out to consultation.

He said: "We need more palliative beds in the whole county, not fewer. The five beds at Evesham should probably be twenty. Zero is not an option.

"The people who have given generously to support the Macmillan beds will be outraged to see them cut as part of a short-term financial crisis.

"This closure is simply contrary to two central government policies."

The MP continued: "What is more, I understand the cut is being made to enable the PCT to finance beds at the new St Richard's Hospice in Worcester - beds to which it was already committed.

"All of us who have given our time and money to support this much-needed facility thought we would be expanding cancer care in Worcestershire, but are instead being told that by supporting St Richard's we have signed the death warrant for the palliative care beds at Evesham.

"This cruel irony cannot go unchallenged."

Mr Luff highlights three other reasons for a full public consultation on the proposed cuts.

"First, at a time when record sums of money are indeed being poured into the NHS, we should not have to make cuts at all in services.

"Second, even the smaller and apparently less consequential cuts, for example in physiotherapy, come after earlier cuts in previous years, while others, like those to health visiting, will have the most damaging impact, especially on the elderly.

"Third, temporary closures - or closures intended to permit service reconfiguration - have a dreadful habit of becoming permanent."