Health staff have denied accusations that they are planning to close down Oxford's 30-bed community hospital.

Union members claimed Oxford City Primary Care Trust managers were proposing to shut OxComms, at the Churchill Hospital site, in Headington, by 2007.

But although the PCT has admitted they are reviewing services for elderly people in the city, they have categorically denied claims that the hospital is to be closed by 2007.

Members of Unison said managers revealed their plans at a special staff meeting, after it was announced that the PCT and the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals were reconsidering plans for a geratology unit at the Churchill Hospital.

The dedicated unit was due to be built as part of a private finance initiative, to replace an older department at the Radcliffe Infirmary.

In a statement, Ian McKendrick, acting communications officer for Unison's Oxfordshire health branch, said: "Rather than proceeding with a publicly funded hospital, which Unison believes would provide better service to patients, the PCT is proposing to close OxComm altogether."

Oxford City PCT director of primary and integrated care services, Penny Astrop, denied OxComm would be closed, but said the service would have to move from its current home by 2007.