THE future of a new community hospital in Pershore has been further secured - thanks to almost £500,000 worth of legacies made in people's wills.

The new hospital and a health centre will be built on land at Pershore's civic centre, and a planning application is expected to be submitted this autumn, with building work hoped to start by next summer.

Now Michael Amies, vice-chairman of the hospital's League of Friends, says that fund-raising cash, totalling more than £450,000, most of which is people's legacies, will ensure the new £6m development is fully equipped with state-of-the-art technology.

"Without that money we believe there would not have been enough money in the pot to equip the new hospital," said Mr Amies.

"There's not much point having a brand new hospital with nothing to put in it."

He said while the future of the new hospital had been in question over the last few years, the league had been reluctant to donate the money to health bosses in case it was spent on equipment that could not be transferred to the new site.

But now the development looks set to go-ahead, £10,000 of the league's cash pot has been donated to the existing cottage hospital.

The money will pay for special mattresses for people with "sensitivities" such as bedsores in a bid to make their stay in hospital more comfortable.

The mattresses will be transferred to the new hospital, which will serve all South Worcestershire residents.

The plans will see a hospital and health centre combined under one roof in a three-storey building, with the health centre on the ground floor, the hospital on the second and administrative staff housed on the third.

The hospital will include 26 beds - seven more than at the existing hospital - with four, four-bedded units and 10 en-suite single rooms.