HEALTH chiefs should be fighting to save Brookfields Hospital - according to Cambridge's MP David Howarth.

He has started a petition calling for the older people's wards in the hospital's Davison House to remain open, and has said he will take it to the Houses of Parliament and Health Secretary Alan Johnson.

Mr Howarth said he believed Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust should be lobbying the Government for more money to save the Lord Byron and Frances Cornford wards, which are under threat.

He said: "The PCT should be fighting for more money for this area. The research done in my office has pointed to the fact there are hundreds of millions of pounds in other areas of the country that are lying unspent in the bank accounts of Strategic Health Authorities, and a very small amount of that would save Brookfields Hospital.

"I think it's important for the PCT to fight on behalf of local people. There is no demographic fairness in the health service, and the PCT are just representatives of Government rather than representing the local people."

Cambridgeshire PCT, which ended the financial year £52 million in the red, is reviewing its four community hospitals, starting with older people's services at Brookfields. It is proposing closing the continuing care and rehabilitation care wards and transferring care into the community and nursing homes.

But there has been an outcry from patients and their relatives, who fear nothing will compare to the care on the wards in Davison House.

Anxious people flocked to the first public meeting organised by the PCT to invite people to have their say.

They pleaded with health bosses at the meeting last week in an attempt to get them to save the wards.

Mr Howarth said: "There is very strong feeling in the community. I have heard some very moving stories from people whose relatives have been treated there."

The PCT has launched a pre-consultation, which will run until Friday, October 12.

Mr Howarth is calling for volunteers to distribute his petition.