MALMESBURY hospital is likely to close and the site be sold off it was revealed this week.

The town is likely to be left with nothing more than a glorified nursing home and a health centre providing physiotherapy, occupational therapy and a day hospital for older people.

Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust needs to cut £10million and it looks like people in Malmesbury will have to travel to Chippenham for certain services, particularly outpatient clinics and treatment for minor injuries.

In-patient beds are likely to go as health chiefs plan to provide 24 hour care to support people in their own homes and provide more nursing home care.

Proposals will be drawn up by the trust in the next few weeks for public consultation but it said this week that it is looking to have one community hospital to support the Royal United Hospital in Bath and one to support the Great Western Hospital in Swindon.

The midwife-led maternity service has been given a reprieve of sorts as the trust has said it will try and develop the service to get more women to use it but could not say if the units in Devizes and Malmesbury would stay.

Petitions signed by more than 10,000 people in Devizes and Malmesbury against the closure of the maternity units has prompted the trust to look carefully at maternity services.

Barbara Smith, chief executive of the trust, would not confirm that the trust would close Devizes and Malmesbury Hospitals as part of its plan to have two community hospitals.

But she did say: "I think there will be community facilities in all of our community areas. We have the potential with some of the assets we have, particularly in Devizes and Malmesbury, to do something quite radical."

The cottage hospital was founded in Malmesbury in 1893 by a committee of 12 headed by Charles Luce. It moved to the building at Burton Hill in 1924.

Deputy mayor Charles Vernon 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.''

Malmesbury Hospital League of friends estimate it has given £700,000 over the last 20 years. It has been spent on medical equipment and beds at the hospital. The group said it did not know what would happen to that equipment if the hospital were to close.

Jim Gilmore a member of Malmesbury Hospital League of Friends said: "The Trust is now to spend £10.5 million on new buildings at Savernake Hospital and, would you believe it, is also able to find extra cash to build a shelter so the staff and its headquarters can have a smoke outside without getting wet. No wonder that in its title Kennet comes first.''