WYCOMBE Hospital was threatened with closure before health chief Ruth Harrison battled to save it, it was claimed this week.

Ms Harrison, chief executive of Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust, was blasted by thousands of angry residents after it was agreed to transfer several key services from Wycombe to Stoke Mandeville in Aylesbury.

But as she announced her resignation this week after three turbulent years in power, the chairman of a health scrutiny committee told how without her the hospital could have been shut down altogether.

Ms Harrison has announced she left the trust to do an MSc at London University.

spitals which centralised specialist treatments in one or the other hospital. The plan to move mums' and children's services from Wycombe caused ongoing fury and led to her being seen as the villain of the piece by local people. But this week, others portrayed her as a heroine fighting regional domination.

Mike Appleyard, chairman of Buckinghamshire health scrutiny committee, said without her Wycombe Hospital might have closed completely.

Mr Appleyard said: "No one will know because it will never become public how big a fight there was in the corridors of power to get what we got. That is the reality. I don't think it will become evident to people for a few years the part Ruth and David (Croisdale-Appleby chairman of the trust) had in protecting hospital services in Bucks."

The powers-that-be were saying only one hospital was needed and Ms Harrison had put up a big fight behind the scenes to keep both. Without them there might only have been one hospital, not two and that would probably have been at Stoke Mandeville.

His views were backed by MPs David Lidington and Cheryl Gillan, though not by Wycombe MP Paul Goodman.

Mr Lidington said he had not been told of a definite plan to close either hospital but Government policy was for fewer, big hospitals. Keeping both Wycombe and Stoke was always going to be difficult.

He said: "I have picked up that Ruth Harrison and David Croisdale-Appleby fought very hard at regional level and said things that were not welcome to regional bosses or the DOH."

Mrs Gillan said she feared that without the changes, neither Wycombe nor Stoke would have remained.

Mr Goodman said he wanted to see the evidence. He said, "People were always speculating about the future of the two hospitals, but I heard nothing specific. It is easy to say that if we don't do X, Wycombe or Stoke would close. It is a convenient cover."

Ms Harrison, on holiday before starting an MSc degree in London, said the changes were about maximising local services.

"I am really enthused about what is going on," she said. Medicine has changed and we were trying to make sure services are safe for the future."