WEST Worcestershire MP Sir Michael Spicer has demanded a statement about the state of play over Malvern's new hospital from the Health Secretary Alan Milburn.

Details of how Seaford Court, on Worcester Road, could be turned into a 28-bed hospital, with four additional palliative care beds, six mental health beds and a nurse-led minor injuries unit, will be laid before South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust on August 7.

It will then be discussed at the trust's joint professional executive committee/board meeting on September 4.

But Sir Michael wants the hospital's future discussed as a matter of urgency.

"I think it's time to bring the whole matter to a head," he said. "It has been rumbling along for so many years now.

"I assume there will be a positive statement. The old hospital has done a wonderful job for many years but it's the right moment to build a community hospital in Malvern and it's a very necessary addition to the town's services."

Alex Stewart-Cleary, a member of the project team that is drawing up a business plan for the new hospital, said he hoped money would be found within the NHS budget for the work, rather than see it funded by private finance initiative (PFI).

"We badly need a new hospital," he said. "It would not only be for Malvern, it's for the whole area - Colwall, Upton, Kempsey."

Mr Stewart-Cleary said that he is hopeful that the project will succeed in securing Government funding because it is "community-based".

He urged residents who back the idea to write to South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust chairman David Barlow voicing support.

West Midlands Regional Health Authority pledged that work to turn Seaford Court into a new hospital wold start within two years when it purchased the building in 1980. Funding cuts changed the authority's mind and it then applied to bulldoze the old Georgian schoolhouse for housing. Malvern Hills District Council planners ruled against the application and the now dilapidated Malvern Link building is still favourite to house the new facility.