About 200 people gathered at the Save Molesey Hospital meeting to oppose the proposed closure.

Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is holding public consultations on whether to close the hospital on Approach Road, or relocate services to Cobham or other GP practices.

Residents gathered at Chandlers Field School in West Molesey on Tuesday March 8 at a meeting called by the Molesey and Thames Ditton and Weston Green Residents’ Associations.

Those opposing the closure argue that the alternative would force patients to pay a £15 taxi fare due to the lack of public transport between Molesey and Cobham, with this being “beyond the means of an increasingly elderly catchment area”.

Thames Ditton and Weston Green Councillor Ruth Lyon said: “It was made quite clear that local residents will not give up their local hospital without a fight.

“Speaker after speaker praised the wonderful service they had been given.

“The hospital did its job well in spite of having no maintenance for a great many years.”

The hospital, built in the 1920s, has a 12-bed rehabilitation ward and provides outpatient physiotherapy, general surgery and urology services.

Other hospitals considered as part of the consultation are the Cobham, New Epsom and Ewell, Leatherhead and Dorking community hospitals.