Outraged MP Evan Harris today demanded the Government step in and rescue Oxfordshire's community hospitals, after Chancellor Gordon Brown said he could afford to spend £2bn on the NHS and cut taxes as well.

In his Budget speech, Mr Brown promised a boost to NHS funding which would enable thousands more nurses to be recruited.

Over the next four years, spending will rise by 6.1 per cent above inflation - the largest increase since it was founded 52 years ago.

At the same time, he confirmed a cut of 1p in the basic rate of income tax to 22p. But there will be no extra money to reopen Watlington and Burford community hospitals, sacrificed by Oxfordshire's cash-strapped health authority to save around £1m.

Dr Harris said today: "For years I have been saying there should be more money in the NHS but it is a bit late and they are still going ahead with these tax cuts. If this money really is enough to save the NHS then will they give a commitment to reopen community hospitals they have closed using this extra money?

"People have to wait a long time to have a bed in Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital - and that is because many are closed, due to the lack of nurses and the fact they cannot afford to pay nurses to nurse patients in beds.

"Most people are discharged too early from the existing beds to get people in." Dr Harris spoke out on the day a new report claimed disabled and elderly people were being denied help with basic human needs because of cuts in community care services. In a random survey of 1,550 people, between 70 per cent and 90 per cent reported reductions in assistance with tasks such as washing, using the toilet, preparing meals and housework.

And from next month, old and sick people in Oxfordshire will have to pay higher home-care charges as a result of measures to tackle a £4.6m cut in the social services budget.

Dr Harris, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon and Liberal Democrat health spokesman, was addressing the House of Commons in an NHS crisis debate today.

Story date: Wednesday 22 March

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