Fears are growing of a rise in waiting times as beds are lost at a hospital.

Chase Farm Hospital currently has 68 surgical beds, however the number is set to be reduced to 52 following the £120million redevelopment of the site, in The Ridgeway, by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which took over its running last year.

The hospital used to have 456 beds when accident and emergency and maternity services were on site, comparable to Barnet Hospital and North Middlesex University Hospital, in Edmonton.

But following the closure of the A&E unit, a further reduction for inpatient beds has infuriated Enfield North MP Joan Ryan who says the site is becoming nothing more than “a cottage hospital.”

She said: “I was just amazed at how small it was. Not only has A&E gone but all the big surgery has already gone to Barnet.

“The point I am trying to make is the new hospital will not be replacing like for like. I think there has been a misleading of the public, to have just 48 to 52 beds makes it a cottage hospital and its not what the people of Enfield deserve.”

The MP also fears waiting times will go up as the number of beds goes down.

She said: “Eventually what will happen, people will have to wait longer for a bed and there just is not enough. The time you wait for an operation will increase too.

“I am deeply concerned that, with three years to go until the scheduled completion date for redevelopment, these plans could get even smaller, but I’ll be fighting for every bed and square metre at Chase Farm and I will continue to campaign to protect the hospital from any more cuts.”

The hospital will sit on a 22,000sqm site with a school and new housing being built on the site.

A spokesman for the Royal Free trust said: “Once complete the new Chase Farm Hospital will have 96 beds: 44 for rehabilitation in-patients and 52 surgical beds. The trust is currently commissioned to provide the same number of rehabilitation beds and there are currently 68 surgical beds.

“Work to determine the number of beds needed has been clinically-led, taking into account the current and future health needs of the local population.

“Advances in medicine mean that care is increasingly delivered in the community or as day procedures, resulting in better patient outcomes. We are therefore confident that the hospital will have the right number of beds to continue providing all the services it currently delivers for the local community.

“The new hospital has been designed to allow for significant expansion in response to evolving health needs, so more beds can be accommodated in future.”