To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether those primary care trusts and health trusts within Gloucestershire consulting on how to deal with financial deficits will get an early sight of the criteria for community services under moving care closer to home. (79692)

The Department’s guidance on community hospitals, “Our health, our care, our community: investing in the future of community hospitals and services”, was published on 5 July 2006 and is available in the Library. The guidance has been drawn to the attention of chief executives of primary care trusts, strategic health authorities, national health service trusts and NHS foundation trusts in England.