A hospital boss has defended planned 'talk and tour' consultations after criticisms from an MP.

Chris Grayling, MP for Epsom & Ewell, believes the upcoming public engagements at Epsom and St Helier hospitals are "not a proper consultation exercise, and the NHS is nowhere near making any decisions even about whether it will make changes to the current hospital set-up”.

The four Talk and Tour sessions, to be held in September, are to “find out” public opinion regarding the hospital possibly obtaining £300 to 400 million to create a specialist acute facility for sick patients.

Mr Grayling said: “It’s pretty clear that the Epsom and St Helier Trust has ploughed ahead with this exercise with little or no enthusiasm from other parts of the NHS about what it is doing. I have been assured that the outcome of the discussion will have little or no bearing on future decision making.

"We have always said that I support improvements to healthcare for our area, and I have also always said that if there were a genuinely credible plan for a new hospital, it would at least merit a serious discussion locally. But this exercise is not that credible plan.

“Crucially there is no commitment from the NHS to the principle of funding a brand new hospital in SW London, where in recent years the push has been to reduce and not increase the number of hospital sites. There are a whole range of other unanswered questions about the detail of this.”

Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of Epsom and St Helier Hospital, has fired back by saying their engagement campaign is crucial in repairing “ageing buildings”.

He warned that future generations will not be able to continue like we are now unless something is done.

Mr Elkeles continued: “That’s exactly why we recently launched an engagement campaign to get people talking about the long term future of our hospitals.

"It is very helpful that one of our MPs has said that a genuinely credible plan for a new hospital would merit a serious conversation, because that is exactly what this engagement exercise is designed to be the first step in achieving.

“We need £300 to £400 million to build a state-of-the- art specialist acute hospital facility, which we believe is what the people of Epsom and all our catchment deserve. 85% of our patients would continue to be seen and cared for as they are now, and those most at risk or acutely sick would benefit from a dedicated facility where they can be seen and treated quickly by our most senior clinical staff.”

Mr Elkeles encouraged people to respond to the engagement questions and to attend the talk and tour sessions.

Those events are taking place on:

· Wednesday 13 September from 5.30pm in the Whitehall Lecture Theatre at St Helier

· Thursday 14 September from 5.30pm in the Lecture Theatre at Epsom

· Wednesday 20 September from 5.30pm in the Whitehall Lecture Theatre at St Helier

· Thursday 21 September from 5.30pm Lecture Theatre at Epsom.

Mr Grayling added: "I remain as committed as ever to Epsom’s future, as it seems is the NHS in Surrey. It is a part of Surrey’s strategy going forward. It needs some improvement to its buildings, but it is doing a very good job for patients at the moment and I do not want that to change.

"I get far far more praise than concern about care at the hospital, and that is a real tribute to its staff. I believe that Epsom’s future will prove to be as part of the NHS in the country."