‘KEEP Portland Hospital’ - that was the plea from residents at a public meeting.

Campaigners and concerned residents flocked to the community hospital on Tuesday afternoon to discuss future healthcare provisions on the island.

At the meeting, residents were introduced to the incoming chief executive of Dorset Healthcare, Eugine Yafele.

He will be taking over as chief executive today from Ron Shields, who announced his retirement in October last year.

The meeting discussed whether the hospital should remain in operation as a ‘hub’ for local NHS services or if services would be better provided elsewhere on the island.

Former Mayor of Weymouth and Portland, Jess Nagel said: “I get quite cross when the word hub comes into it. It’s Portland Hospital and has always been Portland Hospital, and it suddenly morphed into a hub at the last meeting.”

She added: “Rumours have been flying around the island like nobody’s business (about the hospital’s closure). It didn’t hurt us, it hurt the staff and that’s who we forget about, the staff have done a wonderful job with this place.”

Another resident said: “I have heard from a couple of sources that up to four years ago staff were told Portland Hospital was closing, feel free to find another job in Dorchester etc. Then we were told it might close because the hospital couldn’t find staff.”

At the meeting, Philip Marfleet of community action group WeyPAW, asked Mr Yafele to give reassurance that Portland Hospital would not be sold.

He said: “At our last meeting with Ron Shields, it was put to him that even his senior colleagues at the healthcare trust had assumed the hospital would be sold. He said that’s true. If you have your own senior colleagues believe the it would be sold and factoring in the calculations, it’s not surprising the people on Portland think the same.”

It comes after an item was included on a Dorset Healthcare board report in September for discussion, it priced the hospital at £7m.

Mr Yafele said: “The hospital will remain open unless the community feel it is in the wrong place and that services could be provided elsewhere.”

Giovanna Lewis, who founded the Save Portland Hospital group, added: “We campaigned to save the beds and were not successful.

“We are now campaigning to keep the hospital because we believe with one wonderful asset, we can keep services. And if we have the big building there’s the possibility that with change in national policy the beds might come back, but if you get rid of it and there are fragmented services on the island, you have lost an important option.”

She called the hospital the ‘crown jewel’ of the island.

Mr Marfleet asked whether Mr Yafele could discuss keeping Portland Hospital at Wednesday’s (30/01) Dorset Healthcare board meeting, but this was declined.

Mr Yafele instead said he would raise the issue at a board meeting planned for March.

He said he was aware of the ‘overwhelming view’ that the hospital is the right place for services to be provided.

Earlier in the meeting he said: “There’s a process, I can only go back to the board with some views of the community. We have got the meeting where we will say - we spoke to the population of Portland, this is their view, and this is what we are going to do. They’re waiting on our information.”

He said the aim of the meeting was to help formulate what happens to the hospital.

He added: “This is purely around how we can get the residents of Portland to shape the services for the future. The overwhelming view is that the hospital is the right place for services to be provided from.”