Another ward is due to close at Epsom General Hospital.

Campaigners said the expected permanent closure of the ward means more uncertainty over the hospital’s future.

This summer, Buckley, a 25-bed medical ward, will be used to house patients from other wards due to be refurbished but when the building work is complete, Buckley could shut permanently.

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust is already undertaking a review to find ways of discharging patients from hospital earlier and says some of the patient length of stays (LOS) are well above average.

The trust has said if patients left hospital earlier, fewer beds would be needed.

But Epsom and Ewell MP Chris Grayling said: “The big worry is that the trust is chopping away at Epsom bit by bit. They need to give absolute assurances that they are not going to be shunting more patients to St Helier – that would be totally unacceptable.”

Health campaigner Geoff Martin said: “Some of the staff are desperately concerned about what this is going to mean to the quality of service at the hospital.

“We may have been sold a pig in a poke about Epsom being saved as a general hospital. This latest proposed closure throws serious doubt over some of the assurances we have been given.”

Last spring rumours were circulating that the trust intended to remove a total of 93 beds from use, 24 of them at Epsom.

The rumours were categorically denied by the trust although it admitted some bed closures might follow its length-of-stay review.

In recent weeks some members of staff received an email stating there was a “need to close further beds on the Epsom site as part of the LOS work. Overall this means the loss of another ward at Epsom, this ward will be Buckley”.

If Buckley ward is shut permanently it will leave Epsom General Hospital with fewer beds as the annual winter pressure period begins.

In a statement the trust said: “As a trust, we know a large number of the patients who are admitted to our hospitals are kept in longer than they clinically need to be.

“Keeping people in hospital longer than necessary is inconvenient for them and means we’re not working as efficiently as we could be. Furthermore, the longer a patient is in hospital, the more likely they are to catch infections from other patients or become less mobile.

“Reducing the amount of time patients spend unnecessarily in our hospitals will also help us to speed up the operations of other patients and, as appropriate, to reduce the number of beds we need on our wards. However, no beds will be removed until we have seen the benefits of reducing the amount of unnecessary time patients spend in our hospitals.

“If we can successfully reduce the time people spend in our hospitals unnecessarily, it may be the case that we no longer require Buckley ward.

“However, decisions about specific areas have not been made yet and it is important to stress that if there are any closures, they will not result in any staff redundancies.”