MP Harriett Baldwin is urging health authorities to step back from plans to cut the number of beds at Malvern Community Hospital.

Her call comes after Worcestershire Health and Care Trust, which runs the hospital, published figures showing that bed occupancy at Malvern was 96.3 per cent in 2015 and 94.6 per cent in 2016.

Mrs Baldwin said: "Our community hospitals are a precious local resource and we all welcome the chance to be cared for closer to our homes where possible.

“The latest figures speak for themselves, showing that Malvern’s hospital is running at near capacity. This simply is not the time to be discussing mothballing beds.

“In my view, the current version of the plan to reduce beds is not backed up by the evidence and with such high pressure on beds at the Worcestershire Royal, we clearly need to use our community hospitals more, not less.

“I hope that the people leading the review into this matter will look again and offer reassurance to local people about the future capacity at community hospitals.“

The calls came after it was revealed that minor injury units at community hospitals in Worcestershire - including Malvern - were forced to close for three days over the New year break because nurses were deployed to support

colleagues in accident and emergency departments at Worcester and Redditch.

A spokesman for Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust said: "At this stage, our area's draft Sustainability and Transformation Plan sets out some fairly high level thoughts for how health and care services could look over the next four to five years, so we can better meet the health needs of our communities.

"A key part of the thinking is improving the care we provide in people’s own homes and if we get this right it could, over time, lead to fewer people needing to be admitted to a community hospital bed.

"If fewer people need a bed because they are getting more effective nursing or therapy care at home, then you might consider changes to bed capacity, but again this would be predicated on strengthening the support provided at home and demand going down.

"Clearly current occupancy figures won’t reflect this long-term approach."