CAMPAIGNERS waved banners today as they protested against the closure of three of Oxfordshire's community hospitals before a meeting to discuss the proposals.

They gathered outside Towler Hall at Oxford's Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre where Oxfordshire Health Authority was to hear the feelings of residents in the towns affected.

Protesters from Wantage, Watlington, Bicester and Wallingford waved banners reading No Cuts. Our Elderly Will Suffer, WHAR, Watlington Hospital At Risk and Centralisation Does Not Give Choice.

Hospitals in Burford, Wallingford and Watlington are threatened with closure under two plans put forward by Oxfordshire Community Health Service Trust which has been told by Oxfordshire Health Authority to slash £1.5m from its budget.

Other hospitals could have beds axed and 11 representatives from each community hospital were speaking at the meeting today.

Chris Davis, co-chairman of Save Oxfordshire's Community Hospitals and Services, a newly-formed joint committee of all the hospitals, said: "We are hoping to get common sense if that's possible. We are hoping the presentations made by each hospital throughout the county will be listened to by the authority."

Queenie Sturch, 70, chairman of The Comforts and Amenities Fund at Burford Hospital, fought successfully against the closure of her local hospital 20 years ago.

She said: "We want to get the options squashed and keep our hospital."

Nick Leadbetter, a spokesman for SOCHS, said: "This is a whole bunch of people who are really concerned about the effects on the community of what are proposed as irreversible changes.

"They come at time when the Secretary of State has just announced another £97m for three initiatives - one of which specifically is primary and mental health care."

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