HEALTH chiefs who have been under fire for taking beds out of use at Thornbury Hospital have pledged to re-exmaine the situation.

Hospital campaigners were furious last week after seeing statistics showing the level of demand for the "mothballed" beds in the hospital's Henderson ward.

The ward had 24 intermediate care beds - used largely for people referred to hospital for short periods by their GP or on their way home after acute surgery - until last year when North Bristol NHS Trust took four beds out of use, claiming they were surplus to need.

The town council received obtained official figures showing how admissions have been refused on an almost weekly basis over the last five months because of non-availability of beds.

Deputy mayor Shirley Holloway told town councillors on Tuesday: ""We were dismayed - yet at the same not surprised - to receive the paper showing the beds would have been used had they been available. In fact, the situation was much worse than we thought.

"I just hope something can be done before the hospital is taken over by the South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust on April 1."

Cllr Clare Fardell said: "The figues are most alarming. They show that there were 20 weeks when the beds were refused for patients referred either by the hospitals or by doctors."

Councillors heard that the reality of the situation could be even worse because at least one hospital department had stopped requesting beds in Henderson ward owing to the shortage.

Cllr Clive Parkinson said pressure should be brought to bear on the Trust to reinstate the beds as soon as possible.

"We all know that if they are not reinstated by March 31 then the funding for them to be re-opened will almost certainly be lost," he said.

North Bristol NHS Trust spokesman Fiona Reid said: "We took the difficult decision to reduce the number of beds on Henderson ward to 20 late last year.

"We took the decision because there was not sufficient demand for the extra four beds and we felt it was a better use of our resources and skills to close those beds on that ward.

"We need to study the information and look closely at whether there is a real demand for those beds. We need to look particularly closely at whether those patients would have been appropriately placed in those beds or whether they required different care in a different setting."