5.7 acre former hospital site close to

centre with potential for luxury town homes.

Offers in excess of £7 million to:Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust

MALMESBURY Hospital will be reduced to a GP surgery, health centre and glorified nursing home by 2005 in plans revealed by health chiefs.

The proposals published on Monday by Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust to combat a £10 million deficit in the PCT's finances have caused outrage in the town.

The Malmesbury Hospital League of Friends said they considered the word 'hospital' a misnomer to describe the services left by the proposals and are considering changing their name to Malmesbury and District Hospital Association.

The plans will see all minor injury unit beds gone by 2005, with a reduction from 19 beds to ten in the next year.

The hospital will lose most out-patient services with cover only for conditions not needing a high level of sophisticated support

More support will be provided for out-patients and intermediate care in the home with 24-hour enhanced home care nursing.

Diagnostic, day surgery and in-patient services will be phased out over the next two years.

The PCT axe also looms over Malmesbury's maternity unit.

A decision on its future has been delayed until July as an assessment of whether more babies, particularly from areas such as Wootton Bassett, can be delivered at the unit to make it more cost effective.

But with changes across the PCT saving just £1,145,596 of the £2 million savings needed from community services, the PCT admitted savings at the maternity unit would have to be made.

To replace the axed services at the hospital, the PCT will explore the possibility of a GP surgery and health centre, which would respond to some minor injuries during working hours, and develop a new partnership for a nursing home which would cover intermediate care for up to six weeks and palliative care.

Chief executive of the PCT, Barbara Smith, defended the proposals outlined in the document your Health, Your NHS, Your Say consulting on priorities.

She said that services were not being cut but redistributed in a more economical way.

Chippenham Community Hospital will become a main centre covering Malmesbury for minor injuries and have specialist out-patient clinics with stronger links to Bath Royal United Hospital.

She said: "We are talking about providing these services in a different way. We are trying to provide as good a uniform service as we can afford."

The next two years will be used by the PCT to set up systems that will provide a credible alternative such as the nursing home, which Malmesbury does not have, and relocating the surgery.

But details of these systems had not been decided, said Mrs Smith, and more work needed to be done with the community to consider the options.

She could not allay fears that the hospital could be knocked down and part of the 5.7-acre site sold for development.

"I don't know if that will happen. We want the community to come up with innovative ideas," she said.

Corsham GP Simon Burrell, who is chairman of the executive committee of the PCT, said the proposals would reduce the 30 per cent of patients blocking beds who could be sent home and the specialist unit at Chippenham will provide a more efficient and high quality service than is currently provided.