A group of GPs has delayed a key meeting when they will decide whether to back proposals to axe acute services at local hospitals, and have still not announced the venue.

Last Wednedsday Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group (SDCCG) said it would meet on May 10 to decide whether to support the Better Services, Better Value (BSBV) review proposals.

But today, following rumours the date had been switched to Friday, May 17, a spokesman for SDCCG confirmed it would be held on that date.

The proposals involve closing the maternity and A&E units at two hospitals -widely believed to be Espom and St Helier - but if just one of the seven commissioning groups involved votes against them then the review will be forced to go back to the drawing board.

Despite calls for the key SDCCG meeting to be held outside working hours so as many people as possible could attend, the spokesman said the governing board meeting would take place between 1.30pm to 5pm.

And although the public will be allowed to attend, the spokesman said their ability to express their views will be limited as it was "not a public meeting but a governing board meeting, held in public".

She said a public meeting already been held on the BSBV review in Ewell in the evening and following next month's decision there would be a chance for public consultations.

She said the May 10 date had only been "provisional" and it was contacting potential venues now to confirm the location - which will be put up on its website www.surreydownsccg.nhs.uk

A BSBV spokesman explained how the process will work. He said: “BSBV is being led by the seven local CCGs. Their goal is to find a way to provide all patients in the area with consistent, high-quality, sustainable healthcare. The pre-consultation business case describes several ways to achieve that goal. If a CCG rejects the business case in its current form, more analysis and modeling will be conducted to enhance the business case. The impact on the process would unfortunately be further delay to public consultation, decision making and implementation and more costs to conduct the additional pre-consultation work. “