HOSPITAL bosses are reassuring members of the public that emergency and urgent cases will still be seen despite the current funding row.

The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals Foundation Trust stopped taking routine referrals from Bournemouth Primary Care Trust GPs on June 23. It has warned that services could be decimated and departments shut unless the dispute is resolved.

The two trusts are at loggerheads over a £6.8 million bill for work carried out by the hospitals last year and a predicted £10-12 million funding shortfall in payment from the PCT in the current year.

Now the foundation trust has issued a statement reassuring potential patients that it is accepting all emergency, fast-track and urgent cases, plus all cancer referrals.

Non-urgent referrals made on paper will be prioritised by hospital clinicians on the basis of clinical need.

The hospital is also continuing to accept existing outpatients and those referred using the computerised choose and book system.

Simon Parvin, medical director of the hospitals, said: "We expect 10-15 per cent of non-urgent referrals to be returned by the PCT. It seems the PCT is finding the money to pay for the non-urgent referrals that we are regrettably having to send back.

"We would ask why the PCT is willing to find funding for this work elsewhere."

The foundation trust says consultants at the hospitals are "extremely concerned" at the situation and have gone out of their way to minimise the impact on individual patients.

The PCT has drawn up plans to send patients to other hospitals, including private health providers, if the dispute cannot be resolved.