ONLY two out of the four community hospitals run by the Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust look likely to survive, it emerged this week.

Health staff believe Devizes and Malmesbury hospitals will be closed and the land sold off while the future of Chippenham and Savernake hospitals will be secured.

Trust chief executive Barbara Smith held a series of meetings with staff on Friday to outline the key ideas it has drawn up on how to cut its £10 million deficit over the next three years.

Health professionals and council leaders in Devizes and Malmesbury, who have been campaigning to retain their town's maternity units, reacted with horror at the news that their hospitals may be shut altogether.

Dr Charles Cowen, chairman of the Devizes GP committee, said Devizes Hospital was in a particularly precarious and unique position because its site was worth a lot of money.

He said GPs believed the trust planned to retain Chippenham Hospital as a satellite to Bath's Royal United Hospital, and make Savernake the satellite to the Great Western Hospital, Swindon.

"Meanwhile other local hospitals will be starved of resources and will ultimately close," he added.

Dr Cowen, who recently acknowledged that some services might have to be cut, is standing firm with his fellow GPs to fight the closure of the hospital.

He said: "We accept that our hospital must change but we will not accept the promise of change when the reality is cuts and closure.

"We have found over many years that the voice of GPs has little impact on strategic health planning and many GPs are battle fatigued as a result of their efforts.

"If what we fear is true, we call on those who care about the future of the hospital to make their views known and do so now, as time is short and the weight of opinion may yet change the course of events."

Mum Becky Veall, of Market Lavington, who helped organise the 500 strong protest march in Devizes against the possible closure of the maternity units, is appalled that Devizes Hospital could close completely.

She said: "The thought that the trust can just take our hospital even in the face of such public opposition horrifies me. The fact that they are keeping us in the dark for so long about whether or not we are actually going to have a hospital let alone a maternity unit disgusts me."

Malmesbury's deputy mayor Charles Vernon was also horrified at the threat to the town hospital. He said: "I think the hospital is going to shut.

"It seems it is easy pickings because we are a small community they think there will not be an outcry. It would be a crying shame if it closes."

Two public meetings have been arranged in Devizes.

One is being held by the Devizes Guardians on March 25 at 7.30pm in the Corn Exchange.

The other is being staged by Devizes Town Council on April 1 at the Corn Exchange at 7.45pm.

Final decisions on cuts and changes will be taken by the trust board on May 22. Meanwhile, it has extended its public consultation to the end of April.