A PUBLIC meeting will be held to discuss the future of a community hospital. Half the beds at Melksham Hospital closed on Thursday and residents are concerned for its future.

Well over 1,000 people have already signed the Wiltshire Times' Save Our Hospital Beds petition, which will be presented to PCT chief executive Carol Clarke.

This week Melksham Town Council decided to organise a public meeting in the Assembly Hall to allow residents to have their say.

Mrs Clarke will be invited, as will Dr James Hill, of Gifford's Surgery, whose contract to provide care for 12 beds ended on March 31, and Dr Rob Matthews, of Spa Medical Centre, whose contract to provide care to the remaining 12 beds will end in June.

Cllr Nick Westbrook suggested the public meeting, so the public could hear the full story.

He said every effort was being made to find replacement cover for the beds, and an email had been sent to every GP practice in west and north Wiltshire inviting them to show an interest in the contract.

"There is no decision at all to close Melksham Hospital and it's not on the agenda," he said.

"If there's some way of keeping the beds open they want to do that at this stage."

Speakers at the public meeting will be provided with questions beforehand.

Cllr Richard Wiltshire thinks one of these should be how cost savings of cutbacks at Melksham Hospital would compare with added costs placed on the Royal United Hospital, Bath, which would lose the overflow beds the hospital provides.

He also wants to question how much added pressure it would add to the ambulance service.

Speaking at the council meeting on Monday, Dr Matthews said growing workloads have caused every GP practice in Melksham to struggle to meet demands.

"My practice has found it harder in the last 14 years than every before to meet the access to patients that we would wish," he said.

Gifford's has found it difficult to recruit new GPs and were under pressure in a way they never had been before.

Dr Hill also reinforced a commonly held view that Melksham Hospital will be sacrificed as part of PCT service reviews planned for next year.

"The service review almost certainly will reduce the number of hospitals and it's a poorly kept secret that Melksham is likely to go," he said.

But he voiced faith in Mrs Clarke, who will lead the service review, and called her an "impressive performer".

Cllr Davina Griffin compared the battle to save the hospital to a "war of attrition".

"It's almost like who will run out of energy first," she said.

Cllr Vic Oakman said: "There's a very strong feeling in Melksham to keep our hospital open and never mind the cost. Costs don't come into it when it comes to saving lives."