HEALTH chiefs are due to meet next Thursday (January 25) to decide what to next with plans to build a new, single hospital for the Forest.

The recommendation to the board of Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust is that it should back the ’preferred option’ of a new hospital to replace the Lydney and the Dilke, Cinderford.

A recent consultation saw 46 per cent of respondents reject the trust’s ’case for change’ with 43 per cent backing it and 12 per cent undecided.

Campaigners have called on the trust to “respect the democratic decision” and instead invest the £11 million earmarked for the new facility in the two current hospitals.

In a report by chief executive Katie Norman, the board is asked to confirm that no issues raised in the consultation “bring into question” the case for change.

A joint seminar between the trust and the Gloucestershire Care Commissioning Group (CCG) – with which it is working on the hospital project – outlining the results of the consultation will be held in public at the Forest Hills Golf Club in Coleford at 12.30pm next Thursday (January 25).

The trust board will meet in public at the same venue at 1pm to consider the chief executive’s reports.

The board will also respond to public questions at the meetings and these should be e-mailed to trust secretary Gillian Steels at [email protected] by noon on Wednesday, January 24.

Questions can also be put to the CCG by e-mailing [email protected]