SOUTH BUCKS' top hospital boss has accused a council health spokeswoman of making "wildly irresponsible and inaccurate" claims that Wycombe Hospital could shut.

Anne Eden, chief executive of Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust, spoke out after the claim by Wendy Mallen, Wycombe District Council's cabinet spokeswoman for health.

Cllr Mallen told cabinet members on Monday there was a "natural bleed" towards hospitals like Wexham Park, Ascot, Berkshire and Frimley Park, Camberley.

This could put Wycombe Hospital - set to lose serious trauma and birthing services - at risk, she said.

"By a dripping we could lose our hospital I believe," she said.

"If you ask the managers of the trust they say no, that is not their intention, they have no plans for this."

Government reforms introduced from 2003 mean hospitals are mostly paid only for work they carry out rather than in bulk grants.

From April patients can choose to go to any English hospital for most treatments meaning a drop in numbers could shut services.

But Ms Eden - who saw a report of the cabinet on the Bucks Free Press website - said: "Wycombe Hospital features heavily in the current and future plans of Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust, and any suggestion that it is under threat' is wildly irresponsible and inaccurate."

She said the hospital has become the trust's "hub" for planned surgery and medical care to serve "a growing - not dwindling - number of patients".

This provided a "vital role" in supporting the trust's other hospitals, Amersham or Stoke Mandeville.

Yet Ms Eden said Cllr Mallen had raised an important issue over the future of births at the hospital.

Only midwives and not consultants will be available to deliver babies from the end of the year - meaning mums may choose to go to a consultant-led unit elsewhere.

About 1,000 births need to take place each year she said to keep the unit open Cllr Mallen said - but only 103 are booked in at the moment.

These same "market forces" could see the hospital shut, Cllr Mallen said.

Ms Eden said: "It is fair to say that healthcare provision is an increasingly competitive arena, but we are extremely confident in Wycombe Hospital's ability to be the hospital of choice now and in the future."

The cabinet agreed to tell the council's overview and scrutiny committee for public health services that it was "deeply concerned" by the changes at the hospital.