HOSPITAL campaigners were dealt a double blow this week with the news that the minor injuries unit at Devizes Hospital will no longer be open for 24 hours a day and 20 hospital beds will be axed in October.

Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust has said it plans to build a new community hospital on the Green Lane site in Devizes by December 2005, but certain services, such as maternity and the proposed diagnostic and day surgery centre are not guaranteed.

The trust was due to decide at a meeting today to cut the opening hours for minor injuries from a 24-hour service to 8am to 10pm.

It said the increased difficulty in recruiting specialist nurses to work at the unit and the low number of patients attending during the night had led to the proposal.

A number of consultant out-patient clinics are also due to be axed in October, with patients having to travel to Chippenham or Savernake hospitals. The trust said it is still working out which clinics will be cut.

Twenty in-patient beds at Devizes Hospital will be axed in October with the trust putting more emphasis on treating people in their own homes by setting up teams of professionals such as district nurses and physiotherapists.

The proposed cuts are contained in the trust's 27-page document, Setting Out Our Strategic Direction, which it published last Thursday in response to the public consultation.

News of the cut in hours of the minor injuries unit at the existing hospital and the loss of consultants' clinics has dealt a further blow to campaigners' hopes for a new hospital.

Tony Duck, chairman of Devizes Guardians, said: "The idea of removing the 24-hour minor injuries cover which serves a community of nearly 30,000 is totally unacceptable. The proposals are a disaster and they do not take us forward at all. We've had the promise of a new hospital since the 1980s and we are no nearer getting it."

Paula Winchcombe, Devizes mayor and chairman of DASH2, Devizes Action To Save our Hospital, said: "Losing the 24-hour minor injuries service would be a great loss to the community and cutting consultants' clinics will hit parents with children and elderly people who do not have access to transport."

Devizes MP Michael Ancram said: "There are serious questions to be asked about what provision there is going to be if the service is cut back."

Roger Davey of the health union Unison accused the trust of deliberately running down Devizes Hospital. He said: "The amalgamation of the wards into one ward at the existing hospital has resulted in staff not being replaced".

The union has started a petition to save services at the hospital which has been signed by more than 1,000 people.

Unison is planning a protest march from the hospital to the trust's headquarters at Southgate House on June 26.

It is appealing to the public to join the march.

Trust community services director Phil Day said: "We are not planning for redundancies."

The public can attend the trust meeting today at the town hallat 2pm.