WITH Princess Margaret Hospital still reeling after an unseasonal influx of patients, questions are being raised about the ability of Swindon's planned new hospital to cope.

The new £148m hospital, which is due to be completed in 2002, will have 53 fewer beds than Princess Marg-aret Hospital, a total of 460 instead of 513.

And with Swindon's population likely to rise above 200,000 in the next 10 years, many people are concerned.

But the Swindon and Marlborough NHS trust insists that comparing the number of beds in isolation is misleading, claiming the hospital should be seen in the context of a re-structuring of the health service.

Greater emphasis will be placed on caring for people in their own homes and a proposed network of 60 intermediate care beds in and around Swindon will take some of the pressure off the new hospital.

Swindon and Marlborough NHS trust spokesman, Chris Birdsall, said: "You only have to look at some of the initiatives that we are putting together to deal with winter pressures to see that an important part of that is to treat patients in the community.

"That is what intermediate care is all about.

"A great deal of thought and planning has gone into the new hospital.

"We have been working very closely with our colleagues in the community services, social services, primary care, Health Authority and the local authorities, and part of that planning has been to make sure that we have a care facility ready when the new hospital opens.

"That means the new hospital at Commonhead will be available to provide the service it has been built for, to deal with acute or surgical problems.

He added: "We will be able to treat more patients because we will have more and better facilities at the new hospital."

The Commonhead hospital is being designed to treat acute patients only and will employ the latest techniques and equipment to speed up the turn over of patients.

Improved levels of home support will also help this process, allowing people who have been discharged from hospital to return to their home earlier.

On Wednesday, the Evening Advertiser revealed how chief feature writer Shirley Mathias, who was being treated at the hospital was forced to endure a mattress on the floor of an office because of a shortage of beds.

And on Thursday, patient Christ-ian Cousins claimed to have spent only two days in a proper bed in the two weeks he spent at Princess Margaret Hospital.