West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin this week repeated her support for Malvern Community Hospital following an NHS engagement exercise to discuss reducing the number of beds at the popular hospital. Harriett offered her continued support after the Worcestershire Health and Care Trust, which runs the county’s community hospitals, published figures for the last two years showing that bed occupancy at Malvern was 96.3 per cent in 2015 and 94.6 per cent in 2016. Harriett commented: “Our community hospitals are a precious local resource and we all welcome the chance to be cared for closer to our homes where possible. “The latest figures speak for themselves, showing that Malvern’s hospital is running at near capacity. This simply is not the time to be discussing mothballing beds. “In my view, the current version of the plan to reduce beds is not backed up by the evidence and with such high pressure on beds at the Worcestershire Royal, we clearly need to use our community hospitals more, not less. “I hope that the people leading the review into this matter will look again and offer reassurance to local people about the future capacity at community hospitals.“