The future of Thame's community hospital has been secured by keeping it out of the clutches of Oxfordshire primary care trusts.

Although Thame is in Oxfordshire, because the hospital and local GPs' catchment areas include parts of Buckinghamshire, it is run by the Vale of Aylesbury NHS Primary Care Trust.

New plans to make health areas follow county boundaries meant Thame could have been put back into an Oxfordshire PCT's domain, which caused a major public protest led by GP Dr Ken Burch and colleagues at the surgery in East Street, Thame.

A packed public meeting in Thame Town Hall in March voted overwhelmingly to stay out of Oxfordshire, because of the way Oxfordshire community hospitals were constantly under threat of closure or reorganisation amid efforts to tackle NHS debts in the county.

Dr Burch said: "I want to say a huge thank-you to the people of Thame and district for coming out and supporting their local hospital.

"I think it's down to the 1,000-plus people who signed the petition and turned out on that March evening that made the strategic health authority change its mind."

Last year, plans had been made to build a new hospital at Thame with 24 beds and diagnostic facilities, but they were shelved until the outcome of the public meeting.

Now hopes are high that the development plans might go forward.