THE FUTURE of Berkeley Hospital has been put in doubt.

Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust wants to increase NHS services offered to people living in Berkeley, Dursley and Cam and part of the plan could be to centralise services in another location.

The hospital in Marybrook Street has 20 community GP beds, a minor injuries unit, rehabilitation and x-ray departments as well as offering many outpatient clinics including orthopaedic, gynaecological and paediatric services

Richard James, chief executive for Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust, said Berkeley Hospital provided a valuable service to a population of around 40,000 people.

He said: "The PCT has plans to substantially increase access to NHS services for this population, particularly outpatients.

"Somewhere in the range of 15,000 to 20,000 of the population visit outpatient departments in Stroud, Gloucester and Frenchay hospitals each year, unlike Stroud, for instance, where there is a comprehensive range of outpatient services already locally available in Stroud hospital."

He continued: "There are no plans at the moment to move the hospital to its centre of population. However there is a need to discuss this with the local community. We intend to provide an extensive range of outpatient services. If this were in Berkeley Hospital, how easy would it be to access for the populations of Cam, Dursley and Wotton under Edge? Would this be a significant improvement on accessing Frenchay, Stroud or Gloucester Royal? We would welcome a debate and discussion with our community on this issue.

He added: "If any changes are to be made we would expect these to be made with the support of our local population. After all, the local NHS services are for them and it is only the local population and the GPs that serve them that can determine what might constitute local and accessible NHS care."