Residents are invited to attend the review meeting with the Primary Care Trust on Friday, December 11.

An independent Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be holding the review meeting, where the recommendations and controversial new arrangements designed for medical cover within community hospitals will be debated.

Until July this year, five local general practices supplied Thame Community Hospital with more than 35 hours of medical cover. However the Buckinghamshire Primary Care Trust's recommendations will leave the hospital with just eight beds and eight hours of medical care.

Dr Duncan Keeley, Nurse Practitioner Mary-Anne Osborne and Keith Green, Treasurer of the League of Friends of Thame Community Hospital, came together last week to collect signatures in a bid to stop the new
arrangements from going ahead.

"We believe there to have been an excellent level of care before, where as now the level of care we are to be left with is inadequate," says Dr Duncan Keeley who is a driving force behind the prevention of the change.

Doctors from Rycote Practice have compiled a detailed list of the factual errors in the report of the review group and are sending this to the committee for consideration in advance of the meeting.

Dr Richard Harrington said "The petition supporting our bid to continue looking after the in-patient beds at the hospital has 4,800 signatures, and we very much hope that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee will take account of the strength of local feeling in its deliberations next week."

Hoping to combine forces, League of Friends will also be attending the meeting and want those who signed the petition will continue to show their support.

Sarah Taylor, Chair of the League of Friends said: "We are very disappointed in the Review Group's recommendation and hope that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee will instead recommend that responsibility for medical cover at the hospital is returned to local GPs. We want to see our own local doctors looking after our hospital."

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting takes place at South Buckinghamshire District Council, Oxford Road Denham, UB9 4LH at 10am.

Anyone who wants a place on the coach, which will leave Thame at 9am, should contact Elizabeth Orde-Brown on 01844 216515.