A group of doctors have saved a hospital ward from being shut down by offering to work for free.

Plans to close 14 of the 25 beds at Uckfield Community Hospital were set for the end of September as part of a money saving programme by the East Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust.

The ten GPs who work at the hospital, all based at surgeries around the town including The Meads, were so outraged when they heard the news in August that they pledged to forgo their fees for six months.

This means that Harlands Medical Ward will stay open while a long-term solution is worked out.

They said the cost-cutting was the fault of the previous PCT Sussex Downs and Weald - which merged to become the present PCT last year - and did not see why Uckfield patients should suffer as a result.

The community hospital in Framfield Road, Uckfield, opened in 1992 after £2 million was raised by the community and donations.

Each patient admitted is looked after by their own GP who can work more than ten hours a week at the hospital as well as in their own surgeries and home visits. They are normally paid per bed which adds up to £23,000 a year for the Mead Surgery alone.

Maria Paviour, practice manager for The Meads Surgery in Grange Road, said: "It shows how passionate the GPs are about the hospital that they are prepared to work for free.

"They feel the service provided there is very important and said they will see it closed over their dead bodies.

"I am extremely proud of our GPs' decision; now we are actively considering plans to ensure that we can secure the ward's future for the long term."

Dr Andrew Duckworth from the surgery said: "Uckfield Hospital should be developed and expanded not cut back. GPs are committed to increasing the services available to local people and a flourishing community hospital is central to these plans.

"We cannot keep cutting funding in primary care to bail out mistakes elsewhere."

Wealden MP Charles Hendry said there would be a march and a rally organised at Uckfield led by Bishop of Lewes Wallace Benn on October 6 to give residents the chance to back their local hospital services and fight against proposals to reduce A&E and maternity facilities at Haywards Heath's Princess Royal Hospital.

He said: "I and the whole community is delighted the ward has been saved. It is a fantastic gesture by the GPs and we all owe them an enormous debt of gratitude.

"We now need to continue the fight to make sure we save the hospital in the long-term."

East Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust (PCT) said it would keep the beds open until the end of March 2008 and planned to work with the doctors on a community hospitals review.

Chief executive Nick Yeo said: "I very much welcome the GPs' offer and their continued involvement in discussions on how medical services can best be provided in our community hospitals into the future. We know how valued these services are by local people and see community hospitals as being key building blocks for the PCT."

The Argus has prepared a letter to Health Secretary Alan Johnson protesting against service cuts. You can sign on our website.