"This is obviously very disappointing news for Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, but it should not be seen as a judgement on the quality of care the trust provides or on the staff who deliver that care.

"Community services are vitally important to the NHS and the patients it serves. In Cambridgeshire, as elsewhere in England, there is already significant pressure on acute hospitals; things cannot carry on as they are. Across the whole NHS, we need to invest more in primary healthcare and in services delivered in the community, and move away from our dependence on hospital-based care.

"The Government has made it clear that local clinicians are best placed to decide the right pattern for local health services. The right pattern will be different in different parts of the country.

"It is hugely important that local people have a continuing say in shaping local health services. It is just as important that they understand why the right pattern for a sustainable NHS, both locally and nationally, might not always seem obvious or what they have been used to in the past. Services that previously could only be provided in hospital can often now be delivered in community settings or even in patients' own homes and the right pattern of care across the NHS will need to take account of this progress.

"We will continue to work closely with community services organisations and press for the care they provide to be valued and invested in."