A HEALTH trust boss has given assurances that moving a planned surgery unit will not mean closing a hospital.

Chief executive of Bromley Hospitals' NHS Trust, Michael Marchment, was questioned by Bromley councillors about the decision to transfer elective surgery from Orpington Treatment Centre to the Princess Royal University Hospital in Farnborough.

Mr Marchment said at a council meeting that it was a priority for the sixth most financially challenged trust in the country to recoup its £100m debt.

He also said merging with other trusts in Sidcup and Woolwich, was the only way forward for strengthening management of hospitals in the area.

Cray Valley East Councillor David McBride, who was at the meeting, said he had been contacted by residents fearful of "a creeping closure of the hospital".

Mr Marchment, the second interim chief executive at the trust in less than a year, said the three theatres and two wards affected were being "mothballed" rather than closed, and that they could be reused in another capacity in future.

He said: "The last thing I want is to have those wards unfit for purpose.

"We will be leaving the background heating on so the walls don't deteriorate.

"We have got no plans to close the site, we genuinely haven't."

Chairman of the Bromley Learning Disabilities Forum, Richard Lane, who sits on the committee, said people were worried about the rush of interim chief executives at the hospital.

He said: "You can sit here and say nothing will happen to Orpington in your nine month tenure, but what commitment is there for that to be continued by your successor?"

Mr Marchment said the lack of a permanent chief executive was a hindrance to the trust and the answer lay in merging with other hospitals.

He added: "I don't believe the management of the hospital is well served by interim chief executives.

"I'd like to see chief executives who can build a future for the hospital.

"That can't be done with Bromley as it is and that's why we are proposing a merger with Woolwich and Sidcup.

"We are all facing the same problems and uncertain futures."