A MAJOR shake-up in the use of beds at Farnham Hospital looks set to be shelved, with the abandonment of a decision taken two years ago that Milford Hospital would close. Surrey Primary Care Trust's board is expected to call off the Milford closure at its meeting on July 29, endorsing the view of an independent panel set up by the PCT, but at the same time signalling that significant changes still lie ahead. Farnham had been due to take 42 specialist rehabilitation beds and specialist services from Milford when the hospital closed. At the same time, 21 beds for older mental health patients at Farnham were to be moved elsewhere. The hugely controversial decision was taken in April 2006 by the now disbanded Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust. It was Option 1 in a year-long consultation on the provision of services at Milford, Cranleigh, Haslemere and Farnham Hospitals and would have saved £2 million a year. Opposed by 94 per cent of the 24,000 people who responded, the choice was slammed at the time by MP Jeremy Hunt as a disgrace and "terrible news for Farnham". He said the hospital would basically become a specialist rehabilitation hospital, rather than the local community hospital Farnham had long campaigned for. The local health watchdog, the Surrey Health Scrutiny Committee, was also critical, describing the changes as focusing more on savings than health improvement. In the event, it was decided that implementation would be delayed until Guildford and Waverley PCT had been succeeded by the Surrey PCT and in due course the issue became eclipsed by the battle over services at the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford.  Announcing last Friday that it was recommending that Option 1 be shelved, the PCT said the decision was in the light of the Department of Health's new primary and community care strategy, launched last week as part of Lord Darzi's Next Stage Review of the NHS, together with the recently published vision for the NHS across South East Coast 'Healthier people, excellent care'. The PCT board on July 29 will be asked to approve further urgent work towards anticpated changes. "The PCT's established clinical reference group has been examining national and local evidence on how and where care is best provided, in particular for patients requiring specialist rehabilitation," the trust stated.      "The resulting clinical model is expected to involve significant change so we can realise the benefits for patients.  "This means that in the future, more patients will be treated closer to home, in a service designed by clinicians around patients' individual needs.  "It is expected that services currently based at Milford and Cranleigh for example, are still likely to change. "As with all significant development or change to services, the PCT will undertake formal, public consultation if required." MP Jeremy Hunt has welcomed the decision by Surrey PCT not to pursue the previous PCT's Option 1. Speaking after hearing the news in a meeting with PCT chief executive Chris Butler last Friday, he said: "This is an extraordinary decision that shows that people power really has had an impact. "Thousands of letters, emails, marches and public meetings have helped persuade the PCT to scrap what was a totally flawed decision by their predecessor body. "Of course we are not out of the woods yet - they will come forward with some new options at the end of the year, and we need to scrutinise them very carefully indeed. But we have won the argument that whatever changes are made, services for the many older people in South West Surrey must be protected at all costs."