A CAMPAIGN to save Kidderminster Hospital from further downgrading or closure has added another 800 signatures.

Members of the Kidderminster Hospital Alliance took their petition to Co-op in Lombard Street, Stourport, on Thursday and hit the figure in just four hours.

The additional signatures added to the nearly 3,000 already picked up during the first week since being launched in July - about a month after clinicians revealed six potential models for the future of acute hospital services in Worcestershire.

Two of the options threaten Kidderminster Hospital with further downgrading or closure, although, whichever is chosen, the town would be left with minor injuries and outpatient treatment as well as diagnostics.

Stephen Brown, spokesman for the alliance, said: “This is quite a magnificent achievement.

“People were coming in and taking blank copies away to distribute in their own communities which means the campaign has now moved beyond its original set up of just a common purpose of local political parties to a grassroots campaign involving everyone.

“That was always our hope of achieving. Similarly, people are contacting us by phone and email to get blank petition forms and alliance information flyers for their own streets.”

The Stourport visit followed the release by the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, part of the county-wide joint services review, of statistics from its seven public meetings held during a public engagement phase.

They said 55 per cent of people who attended the meetings agreed changes needed to be made to the way healthcare was provided in the county.

Mr Brown said: “[Our petition] puts the NHS’s claim into some sort of perspective, as everyone is saying they do not want to see any change to Kidderminster Hospital. Many are saying they wish we still had an A&E and more services.

The alliance has put us firmly in the driving seat of representing the true feelings of local people and the passion and support they show for their local hospital and we will do our best to represent their interests in the joint services review.”