HEALTH chiefs plan to axe 31 beds at Rossendale General Hospital because they are under-used.

But nurses say they have been filled so much of late that patients have had to be turned away.

Is this to be another snapshot of the crisis gripping the NHS this winter - caused by beds being axed and sick people queuing for the ones that are left?.

True, job worries colour the nurses' concern over the plan at Rossendale.

But health bosses must pledge now that waiting lists will not grow and that patients will not be inconvenienced by this scheme.

And if they cannot, then they must axe the plan, not the beds.

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