A public meeting of a new health campaign group in Devizes heard that people want services kept on the Devizes Hospital site.

More than 90 people attended the first meeting of Devizes Health Matters in the town hall on Thursday night.

The group was set up by local health campaigners Judy Rose, Philippa Morgan and Vibeke Ormerod. They were concerned that the X-ray service at Devizes Hospital was being run down and at the lack of immediate plans for the long talked about Primary Care Centre, which is designed to replace services at the hospital and bring all three GP surgeries together.

Mrs Rose told the meeting that there was anecdotal evidence of some outpatient clinics being cancelled at Devizes Hospital and wondered if these were under threat.

The public were asked for their views on what health services they would like in Devizes and where they should be based.

Local resident Renate Roberts, a retired district nurse, said: “We need a minor injury unit and inpatient beds in Devizes. I am constantly ferrying people to Swindon, Bath or Chippenham hospitals.”

Devizes MP Claire Perry spoke about the changes to the NHS that the new Government was due to bring in.

She said a new National Commissioning Board would allocate money for health services and Primary Care Trusts or other groups, such as GPs, could bid to run services.

She said: “If PCTs are doing a good job in commissioning services then they stay, if they don’t there is no role for them.”

A few people said they would prefer the hospital site to be kept for health services rather than sold for housing development.

Mrs Rose warned that some parts of the hospital buildings were not fit for purpose but thought it would be feasible to rebuild on the site.

Don Jones, who was chairing the meeting, asked for a show of hands from the audience if they would like health services retained on the hospital site to which the majority agreed.

Following the meeting NHS Wiltshire, which runs Devizes Hospital, denied there was any threat to X-ray and outpatient clinics.

A spokesman said: “There have been two occasions in the last month when staff at Devizes Hospital have gone sick and it has not been possible to find bank staff at late notice to cover X-ray clinics.

“A total of five patients agreed to change their appointment time to the earlier slots offered to them.

“There are no planned changes to outpatient services at the hospital.”

NHS Wiltshire is considering where the Devizes Primary Care Centre could be located.

After abandoning a site next to Quakers Walk as part of a proposed retirement village, NHS Wiltshire is reconsidering both its own offices, at Southgate House in Pans Lane, Devizes, and a green field site it owns in Green Lane, next to the NHS Treatment Centre.

The original plan was to put the PCC at the Green Lane site but this was withdrawn when the Quakers Walk site was offered by St Monica Trust.