LYDNEY district councillor Bill Osborne has called an urgent public meeting for this Friday at the Naas Lane Centre (7pm) over rumoured changes in medical cover at Lydney and District Hospital.

NHS Medical and care representatives have been asked to attend to explain to Lydney people what the changes will mean to them, said Cllr Osborne.

"As I understand it patients will no longer be able to ask their own doctors to attend while they are in hospital," he said.

"The meeting is an attempt to find out what the changes are and the sort of medical cover the hospital is going to be left with. I think Lydney people have a right to know what is going on at a hospital they are very fond of and to which they have contributed a lot of funding over the years."