A DOCTOR has vowed to launch a public campaign if health chiefs announce plans to demolish a Derbyshire community hospital.

The NHS this week revealed the site of Heanor Memorial Hospital could be used for a health and social care development for elderly people.

The future of Heanor Memorial Hospital could be in doubt.

It has sparked concerns the 24-bed hospital will be demolished to make way for it.

The NHS said talks were in their "very early stages" and there were no "current" plans to demolish the hospital.

It treats people who do not need the specialist staff and equipment available at a larger hospital.

But Dr Jim Noble, chairman of the medical staff committee at the hospital, said staff were told at a meeting with health bosses the site would be cleared to make way for the new development.

He said: "I'm not going to stand back and allow the hospital to be closed. It would be an enormous loss for Heanor.

"When we are told for certain what will happen, then we will go to the public for their support. It's Heanor's hospital for Heanor people."

Dr Noble said health chiefs planned to continue to have beds for patients in the new development but these would be for people in need of nursing home-type care.

Dr Noble said he was fearful for the future of the hospital's staff, made up of about a dozen doctors and 50 nurses.

He said: "Nobody knows if the staff will lose their jobs or not."

A spokeswoman for Derbyshire Community Health Services, which runs the hospital on behalf of local health authority NHS Derbyshire County, said: "There are no current plans to demolish Heanor Memorial Hospital.

"We are looking at how best to develop local services around existing ones we provide in Heanor."

NHS Derbyshire County will be axed by the Government in the next two years and GPs given powers to plan and pay for health care.

But Dr Noble said that by the time this happened it could be too late, because he expected a decision about the planned development and its impact on the hospital to be announced next month.

He said: "It's very easy to dismantle a service but very difficult to resurrect it."