Shoppers in Abingdon have demanded the town hospitals be saved and units at Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford and Henley shielded from either closure or change.

Abingdon's mayor Alison Rooke accompanied by Town Crier and mayor-elect Peter Green asked people in the Bury Street precinct to voice their support to the joint mayors' campaign to ensure the future of the towns' five hospitals.

So far almost 500 people have signed up, and many more are expected over the coming weeks as petitions go out to shops, pubs and businesses in the town.

Under proposals being considered by the South West and South East Primary Health Care Trusts (PCTs) a shake-up of health care provision is on the cards.

Wallingford and Witney would be 60-bed hospitals serving the whole region.

Wantage and Henley hospitals would close. Didcot would be a central maternity unit and Abingdon would become a home nursing centre and day care unit. The PCTs say that no firm decision has been taken and will not be until full consultations have been held. They warn that changes are in the offing although total bed capacity could stay the same.

But opposition is mounting and the mayors of the five towns have joined forces and are circulating a petition.

It calls for all five hospitals to stay open and that they should continue to operate with full services. Mrs Rooke said: "So far nearly 500 names have been collected, not counting petitions that are on shop counters.

"We will be continuing with this until we have got the signatures of all people we can reach or until time runs out and the PCT has started its consultation process."

She said many people who approached them knew of what was happening through reading the Oxford Mail and its sister paper the Abingdon Herald.