Explosive documents obtained by Conservatives revealed the real threat of closure to the Royal Surrey County hospital, how the cuts are being forced because of the Surrey-wide financial crisis, and how patients will suffer under the closure plans. The internal Surrey NHS documents were obtained by local councillor, Sheridan Westlake, under the Freedom of Information Act.The previously confidential papers reveal:· In 5 of the 8 ‘scenarios’ being modelled by Surrey’s NHS, the Royal Surrey A&E will close. The closures are being driven by the need to curtail the NHS budget deficit; closure of the Royal Surrey is estimated to turn a £69 million deficit in 2008-09 into a surplus.· The Surrey Ambulance Service has warned of significant increases in ambulance transfer times from an incident to hospital if the Royal Surrey closes. Patient health will suffer as a result, potentially breaking the ethical code of the ambulance medics.· Journey times are estimated to double, and three times as many incidents will be more than 19 minutes from an A&E – a key health indicator - if the Royal Surrey closes.· The closure of any hospital will have to be accompanied by ‘demand management’ measures, delaying patients’ access to hospital services – else there will be insufficient capacity and government targets will not be met. In other words, even more health cuts will have to follow any hospital closure. · Cancer waiting times will increase if the Royal Surrey closes.· 710 staff would face the sack if the Royal Surrey closes, with redundancy costs of £36 million. The vast majority of those losing jobs will be clinical staff, not administrators.South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt said: “These papers highlight just how severe the consequences would be if the Royal Surrey’s A & E were to be closed – yet the Surrey PCT is considering several ways of how to do just that. I am very concerned that the increased journey times, the cuts to services and the reduction in staff would all be dangerously detrimental to local people’s welfare.""Cllr Sheridan Westlake, Borough councillor for Merrow, who obtained the information, said: “These previously secret papers expose the financial black hole in Surrey’s NHS. It is clear that the Royal Surrey faces a real threat of closure purely for cashflow reasons. It is scandalous that they are planning to waste £36 million alone just on redundancy payments. No wonder the Government now want to curtail the Freedom of Information Act, given its use is exposing their record of public sector mismanagement.”