A LAST-DITCH bid has been launched this week to save Frenchay Hospital from being downgraded to little more than a community health centre.

A decision on the much-loved hospital's future is being made on Monday by the bosses of six regional health trusts and concern is rife that Frenchay will be down-sized on a massive scale.

Chiefs of the Bristol Health Services Plan, which devised the case for change to healthcare across South Gloucestershire, Bristol and North Somerset, last week announced their preference for making Southmead Hospital the major acute facility to serve South Gloucestershire and north Bristol.

Now Northavon MP Steve Webb is urging people who want to keep Frenchay to pull out all the stops to influence the final decision.

He is organising a protest outside Monday's meeting (9.30am) at the Beeches Hotel, Broomhill Road, Brislington.

Mr Webb said: "For those who live in places such as Yate and Chipping Sodbury, the public transport links to Southmead are effectively non-existent, whilst the prospect of getting to Southmead in an emergency in the rush-hour is terrifying."

The MP says he has already been in contact with thousands of people who want to save Frenchay Hospital.

He added: "Surely, if the intention is to serve the whole Bristol and South Gloucestershire area with two major hospitals, and one of them is in the middle of Bristol, then the other major site should be in South Gloucestershire?"

Support for acute facilities to remain at Frenchay has also been building within town and parish councils this week.

Sodbury Town Council backed the fight to save Frenchay at its meeting on Tuesday. Cllr Paul Clark said patients in Yate and Sodbury would be left with no A&E department if Southmead became the major hospital.

"Southmead is close to the Bristol Royal Infirmary, which has an emergency unit, anyway," he added.

Cllr Sheila Mead urged people to turn up in their droves to Monday's meeting.

She said: "They will not expect hundreds of people to turn up but they will. This is a chance for people to have their say."

Winterbourne Parish Council was this week split on the Southmead versus Frenchay debate.

Speaking at its Monday meeting, Cllr Andy Cox said: "Anybody with personal experience of the standard of care at Frenchay Hospital knows you cannot compare it to Southmead Hospital.

"I would rather go to Frenchay than any other hospital in the country."

Chairman Cllr David Fletcher, however, told the parish council: "At the end of the day, there are only so many resources and they are not being used effectively at the moment."

Transport to the Bristol meeting is available from Yate - call Mr Webb's office on 01454 322100.