DOZENS more community care beds are being created in North Staffordshire to help cope with the planned loss of 250 beds at the area's main hospital.

Bed numbers at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire are set to be cut to 1,018 under plans to treat more people elsewhere and slash bed-blocking.

But health groups have warned more beds are needed in the community to cope with the cut when the £400 million superhospital opens.

Now the NHS is to pay for at least 28 more beds at Bradwell and Haywood hospitals and at nursing homes to bring the total to 119.

It comes ahead of a planned review of bed numbers at the Hartshill complex to see if the 1,018 limit can be increased.

Review head Tony Bruce, who is also chief executive of NHS North Staffordshire, today pledged that bed numbers will not drop below 1,018 – and accepted they could be increased.

Mr Bruce, pictured below, said: "Planning assumptions in the business case to bring about this programme were made five years ago and many things have changed.

"For example a patient needing a hip replacement would stay in hospital for five days, but now the orthopaedic hospital at Oswestry performs the same procedure with just an overnight stay.

"On the other hand, patients living in Leek and Cheadle who currently choose to go to Macclesfield hospital for surgery may be tempted by the prospect of a shiny new hospital in Stoke-on-Trent and be treated there instead.

"All these things will be going into the review.

"But whatever happens, the minimum assumption of 1,018 acute in-patient beds will stay.

"If it is the view that we need more acute beds we shall find some way to make that happen."

The superhospital is due to open on the City General site in 2012.

Hospital chief executive Julia Bridgewater has previously called for more so-called intermediate care capacity in the community to stop her hospital being landed with problems.

Ian Syme, co-ordinator of campaign group North Staffordshire Healthwatch, today welcomed the review into bed provision.

He said: "People are worried about this fall in beds but the figure that really matters is bed occupancy (the average amount of time a bed contains a patient) rather than crude bed numbers.

"At present it is about 97 per cent at the hospital, which is much too high and leads to problems such as the long queues in A&E last year.

"But if all the new initiatives to cut the area's reliance on the acute hospital and occupancy levels can come down to around 84 per cent we should be OK.

"That will give enough flexibility and headroom to cope with sudden surges in demand."

More related stories:

Doctors targeted with swine flu jab