A New Forest MP has urged health bosses not to shut a hospital that has served a community for nearly a century to ease a short-term cash crisis.

All 20 beds at the Fenwick Hospital in Lyndhurst were closed because of a shortfall of £9.8m in January - much to the dismay of residents.

Health bosses have maintained that the closure is a temporary trial measure but many fear that the inpatient facility has been lost forever.

Feelings are running so high that a petition demanding that the beds be reopened raised 2,000 signatures in just two weeks.

New Forest East MP Julian Lewis is due to present the document to the chief executive of the New Forest Primary Care Trust, John Richards, on Friday.

Ahead of the meeting, the MP wrote to Mr Richards: "Financial crises come and financial crises go, but once a hospital is destroyed for short-term financial reasons, the damage is irreparable."

He added: "Any failure to reopen the hospital and restore its invaluable work for the local Forest community would spark a massive protest - a protest to which I would give my whole-hearted support."

Mr Lewis has vowed to support protesters in any way he can.

The decision to close the beds was taken after bosses imposed restrictions on employing agency staff to save money.

As a result, there was not enough staff to cover the wards at the New Forest's five community hospitals - at Hythe, Milford, Fordingbridge, Romsey and Lyndhurst - and the Fenwick was selected for closure.

The hospital has served Lyndhurst and the surrounding districts since 1908, when it was purpose built "to the glory of God and for the benefit of the suffering poor of Lyndhurst and neighbourhood". Residents have been appalled that the hospital lost a number of valued services over the years.

A recently refurbished day room was closed last year, even though the Fenwick's League of Friends had raised £75,000 towards the transformation.

The physiotherapy department closed in 2003 and the maternity unit was axed several years ago.