CAMPAIGNERS are set to meet Health Secretary Andrew Lansley this month to raise concerns about the imminent loss of specialist services at Wycombe Hospital.

Members of the cross-party Save Our Hospital Services campaign group, chaired by Bucks Free Press editor Steve Cohen, will travel to Whitehall on June 13.

Though the hospital changes have now been signed off by the NHS Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Cluster, they are still to be agreed by Bucks County Council.

The council's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee has the power to refer the final decision to Mr Lansley. For background see related links.

The changes at a glance:

• Inpatient wards for diabetes, respiratory, gastroenterology and medicine for older people are transferred to Stoke Mandeville. Outpatients for these services still go to Wycombe Hospital, which gets a new day assessment unit and ‘step-down’ ward for elderly patients.

• The Emergency Medical Centre at Wycombe is downgraded to a Minor Injuries and Illnesses Unit. About 300 emergency medical patients per week taken by ambulance to Stoke Mandeville or Wexham Park hospitals instead.

• Wycombe keeps critical care and specialist services for stroke and heart attack patients. Its breast care service also becomes a specialist unit.

• Complex vascular surgery moves to Oxford, affecting about 250 patients per year, except carotid surgery [to prevent strokes] which stays in Wycombe.

• Wycombe Hospital will see about 7,600 fewer people per year - a reduction of about three per cent. The key drivers for change are both financial and clinical.