REDDITCH has been called a "sacrificial lamb" during a heated meeting about the future of hospital services in the county.

The Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) meeting, held earlier this week and which included a number of angry outbursts from members of the public, saw doctors approve a proposed model for the future of hospital services at the county's three hospitals - Redditch's Alexandra Hospital, Worcestershire Royal, and Kidderminster Hospital.

Under the current plans the Alex Hospital will offer an adult only A&E department with 'robust arrangements' for managing a seriously sick child if they arrive unexpectedly or their condition deteriorates while at the hospital.

Key services will be centralised in Worcester, including consultant-led births, emergency surgery and inpatient care for children.

There is hope for a midwife-led centre at the Alex though.

The main proposed changes to services are the separation of emergency and planned care, the creation of centres of excellence for planned surgery and an urgent care centre for adults and children at the Alex Hospital.

Campaigners say that under the plans the Alex will become little more than an assessment unit and would end up treating minor injuries only.

They accused the board of ignoring Redditch in favour of Worcester and shoring up Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the three hospitals.

Neal Stote, from Save the Alex, spoke passionately about a number of concerns about the model such as future staffing problems, transport issues - not just people going from Redditch to Worcester but people travelling from Malvern to Redditch, and capacity issues at an already over-stretched Worcestershire Royal.

Throughout the meeting the board stressed that what is going forward is the best for the people of Redditch and Bromsgrove.

They said that under the proposed model 95 per cent of patients will see no change to the way they access services.

Simon Hairsnape, chief clinical officer, said the current proposals are a lot better then what the CCG thought it would be four years ago.

"The main thing now is to get stability into healthcare in Worcestershire which is what people need," he added.

The plans will now be passed to the West Midlands Clinical Senate for approval.

This will be followed by a public consultation later this year.

No permanent changes to services will be made before the end of public consultation.