THE in-patient ward at Warminster Community Hospital is to reopen on Monday a month after it was closed due to a lack of GP cover.

Doctors drafted in from Trowbridge have agreed to provide the cover needed to reopen the ward but there are no guarantees for the long-term future of the hospital and only 16 of the 24 beds will be used.

West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust chairman Steven Golledge this week told district councillors the future of none of west Wiltshire's hospitals are not guaranteed.

Dr Huw Williams of Adcroft Surgery, which is providing the cover allowing the in-patient ward to reopen, has called on local people to be open to change, even if that does mean some hospitals have to close.

He said: "Medicine must move on and we need to make sure the health service locally is the most modern service we can have and that means we all have to change.

"Hospitals are a great resource and people have seen them close and get nothing in return. What we have to do is make sure,

if there are changes, there is something visible in return which is better than what we had before."

Wards have also been closed at Bradford on Avon and Westbury and campaigners are fighting to ensure local hospitals have a future in these towns.