THE campaign to save Gosport's Royal Hospital Haslar from closure is gearing up for a critical phase.

Ministers have agreed to meet members of the campaign early next month to hear their plea for the hospital to be retained and turned into a centre for medical excellence.

And on Monday three of Haslar's prominent supporters will give evidence to the House of Commons defence committee to outline why they believe it would be wrong to close the hospital.

The series of meetings begins on Thursday when members of the Save Haslar Campaign sit down with Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Health Authority to set out their suggestion that Haslar becomes an NHS hospital with a military wing.

Four days later the focus will switch to Westminster as MPs who visited Haslar on April 14 hold their final session of evidence for an inquiry into the defence medical services. Witnesses will be Dr Peter Golding, a Haslar consultant; Vice-Admiral Tony Revell, a former surgeon general; and Dr Philip Gray, a local GP.

Later that afternoon the committee will question Doug Henderson, minister for the armed forces, and Barbara Stocking, regional director of the south east NHS executive, about the future of Haslar.

Peter Viggers, MP for Gosport, said: "Everybody knows that our defence medical services are facing a crisis and we maintain that closing Haslar, the only remaining service hospital, will exacerbate that crisis.

"The select committee was impressed by the evidence it received when it visited Haslar and I think they were minded to urge that Haslar be retained and strengthened, but the session on Monday will be critical."

A report by the committee is expected late next month. However Mike Hancock, MP for Ports-mouth South and a member of the committee, said MPs were conscious that the Ministry of Defence appeared to be determined to close Haslar as planned.

He said: "I am always open to persuasion but I think the die has been cast and they have stopped listening."

Members of the Save Haslar Campaign had sought a joint meeting with George Robertson and Frank Dobson, the ministers in charge of defence and health. Instead they have been offered dates for joint meetings next month with Doug Henderson, a minister of state at the MoD, and Baroness Hayman, junior minister at the Department of Health.

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