HEALTH campaigners believe elderly patients will be hardest hit with the news Warminster and Trowbridge community hospitals will definitely close.

The primary care trusts for Kennet and north Wiltshire and west Wiltshire released their Pathways for Change document on Friday and none of the proposed options include keeping the two hospitals open while Melksham Hospital is also threatened.

The news has sparked fears that up to 300 jobs will be lost when the hospitals close.

UNISON representative Roger Davey said he was extremely disappointed' by the decision and has declared the union will fight against compulsory redundancies.

The PCTs have said too much money is spent on maintaining buildings and propose community hospitals should be replaced with 24-hour home nursing teams and new super GP surgeries. Despite assurances from PCT chief executive Carol Clarke that these would be in place before the hospitals were shut, campaigners are worried vulnerable patients will be left without care.

Warminster Hospital's League of Friends vice chairman Colonel Charles Lane said: "We are horrified by the announcement in particular in relation to the care of elderly people when care in the home is not yet properly organised."

He and other supporters of Warminster and Trowbridge hospitals were also furious they were not consulted on the closures and are concerned the nearest hospital for patients could be as far away as Chippenham, if Melksham is also closed.

Chairman of Trowbridge Hospital's League of Friends, Jeff Osborn said the people of the town were gutted' by the news that both the hospital and the health clinic on The Halve would close. "Primary care centres are not a replacement. At the end of the day all they are is glorified GP surgeries and there will not be much needed beds in them," he said.

Tony Buckingham, a Trowbridge Hospital volunteer for the last 10 years, said it was elderly patients with mental illnesses who would be worst affected by the closure.

He said: "You simply can't send these people home, they need 24-hour care. Their visitors are often elderly too and cannot travel as far as Chippenham to visit loved ones."

West Wiltshire MP Dr Andrew Murrison has condemned the PCTs' decision and said he believed constituents would see through the consultation documents. "The promise of souped-up GP mega-surgeries offering even less choice than at present, a few more district nurses that can be readily cut when the axe falls again and an impossibly remote new hospital in Chippenham, seems a poor substitute for the four community hospitals that my constituents will be losing," he said.

Campaigners for Trowbridge and Warminster hospitals were due to meet yesterday to decide the next step in the fight to stop the closures.