NURSES are so worried about plans to transfer them from Witney Community Hospital they are considering quitting, an insider has said.

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is in the middle of moving staff from the 30-bed Wenrisc ward at the hospital while it shuts for seven months for refurbishment.

The trust said it would send the staff to plug gaps at other Oxfordshire community hospitals, which it believes will allow the reopening of 24 beds, and will send them back to Witney once the work is done. But a member of staff who works at the hospital, who did not wish to be named, said many staff did not want to move and had fears about the long term future of the ward.

He said: “There have been lots of tears. I’ve seen people sitting on the stairs crying. Some of the nurses have been very upset, they feel rejected and some of them feel like leaving the trust. They’ve said they plan to reopen the ward but we don’t know exactly what their plans are.”

Similar fears surround the future of the intermediate care ward at Chipping Norton Hospital.

Oxfordshire County Council announced in June it would transfer control of nurses there from the NHS to the Orders of St John Care Trust.

County councillor for Witney Laura Price said she would put a motion to a full council meeting on Tuesday calling for the trust to be more transparent about its intentions.

Trust spokesman Alistair Duncan said: “Following the conclusion of the consultation, all staff have been redeployed on a temporary basis into equivalent roles elsewhere within community hospitals and wider community services. They will be asked to return to their previous roles on Wenrisc ward when it reopens early in the New Year following refurbishment.”