ANDOVER War Memorial Hospital manager Mollie Antrobus gave an upbeat presentation on the future of the hospital this week.

Town residents have been repeatedly assured their community hospital will not close while fears have been voiced over services following a merger with the Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust.

But at Andover Councillors' Forum Mrs Antrobus set out to allay fears by outlining exactly what changes were likely to take place and just how much responsibility would be taken by the Andover Division. And she praised the efforts of Andover people in their fight for the memorial hospital. "Quite honestly I've been proud to be one of them," she said.

"I'm extremely grateful for that support and I'm quite sure it had an effect."

Mrs Antrobus told the meeting that services provided in Andover included pharmacy, outpatients, day surgery, foot health, diagnostic imaging, community nursing, mental health, rehabilitation services, palliative care and GP beds.

As from 1 April next year a mental health and learning disability trust is due to be set up as a result of Government policy. "This means that from the Andover Division the community health team will be relocated into the mental health trust covering Andover, Winchester and Southampton," she said.

If plans were approved for the primary care trust, also from 1 April next year, this will assume responsibility for district nursing, health visiting, school nursing, foot health, community dentistry and the continence service covering Andover and Winchester.

But that would still leave Andover War Memorial with outpatients, pharmacy, audiology, orthoptist services, specialist nursing, diagnostic imaging, day surgery, family planning, palliative care, the ACORNS early learning centre, GP medical beds, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and the minor injuries unit.

"And at the moment I have plans to open 14 to 16 more GP beds for the winter months," she said.

For the future she saw more people being treated at home and at GP surgeries, more intermediate surgery, telephone consultations and use of the internet. She envisaged that 24-hour nursing at home could be a feature of the future, particularly as 50 per cent of beds on Kingfisher Ward were occupied by people waiting for nursing home places.

Mrs Antrobus also believed there might be more emphasis on intermediate care for people who no longer required acute care but were not ready to go home.