BERKELEY Hospital will close despite fearless campaigning from local groups to save the 112-year-old community health facility.

At a public board meeting last Thursday, September 21, the fate of Berkeley Hospital was sealed as health bosses announced they supported a new build in Dursley over any further investment into the Berkeley site.

Richard James, Chief Executive of Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust, said: "We recognise that a change in service model and location is hard for local communities and for local staff."

The decision came four months after rumours first circulated about the possibility of Berkeley Hospital closing to help Gloucestershire NHS clear a £40 million debt.

Throughout a 12 week public consultation members of the Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust fiercely defended the proposals and claimed they were not part of the county's wider cost cutting exercise but were about improving health care provision in the Berkeley Vale area.

Last week health chiefs said they endorsed the proposal to close Berkeley Hospital, Symn Lane Clinic in Wotton-under-Edge and Sandpits Clinic in Dursley to build a brand new health clinic in Dursley.

Mr James said: "We are confident that these proposals reflect the way the NHS is changing and will result in increased local access to services including many more outpatient clinics and the provision of state of the art new facilities. I am delighted so many clinical staff have worked so hard to develop this proposal."

A concern of campaigners had been if the proposals were given the go ahead the hospital would close before the new facility was ready last week, however, it was confirmed all clinics earmarked for closure would remain open until further plans had been made about the new unit.

During the interim period Berkeley Hospital's minor injury unit will have its hours reduced from 24 hours to from 8am to 8pm. This will come into effect from November 1.