MORE than 200 people attended a special open day at Andover to discuss the future of the town's hospital.

Members of the public were able to see for themselves proposals for the Andover War Memorial Hospital and quiz Winchester and Eastleigh Health Care Trust chief executive Chris Evennett and other directors.

But campaigner Derek Robinson, who is dying of cancer, was also there with his own stall calling for a Question Time-style open forum.

He said: "From our point of view it went exactly as we thought, although there was much greater interest in terms of the public supporting the Question Time-style evening."

More than 100 people signed a form calling for the meeting and Mr Robinson has now arranged for a meeting to take place at Andover Baptist Church on 16 August starting at 7pm.

Health chiefs were also pleased with the turnout for the open day, which ran from 1pm to 7pm.

They explained they wanted to provide new accommodation for outpatients, the Birth Centre and diagnostic services by reducing the size of the Andover site and using money from land sales to fund new facilities.

For the full story see Friday's Andover Advertiser