Skipton will keep its hospital - although the services provided, indeed the very building in which it is housed, may radically change.

What emerges may not be a traditional "hospital" at all but a super medical centre, perhaps housing a minor accident and emergency service, NHS dental facilities and outpatient services.

A long standing plan to demolish the existing building on Keighley Road and replace it with a modern structure better suited to delivering health care is likely to be activated.

The commitment to retain some form of Skipton-based health service provision was given this week by Craven Harrogate and Rural District (Chard) Primary Care Trust but the decision over its final form will not be made until the summer. Any new hospital would be at least two years off.

Currently Skipton Hospital is run by Airedale NHS Trust, which revealed last autumn that it wanted to close the hospital to plug a £2 million deficit in its budget.That sparked a 15,000 signature petition organised by the Craven Herald and Skipton Soroptimists against its closure.

Chard, which controls part of Airedale's purse strings, also signalled its opposition to closure and an agreement has emerged by which the land, administration and delivery of services at Skipton would be transferred to the Harrogate based organisation.

Earlier this month the Government made it clear that the closure of smaller hospitals had to stop.

In a report entitled "Keeping the NHS Local" it stated: "The mindset that biggest is best that has underpinned many of the changes in the NHS in the last few decades has to change.

"The continued concentration of acute hospital services without sustaining local access to acute care runs the danger of making services increasingly remote from many local communities. With resources now available, new evidence emerging that 'small can work' and new models of care being developed it is time to challenge the biggest is best philosophy."

Penny Jones, chief executive of Chard, said that the PCT was putting together its Local Delivery Plan - its strategy for the next three years - which would be completed in the summer.

The PCT, which is responsible for primary care (such as general practitioners, community nurses and health visitors) will assess what the Craven community requires.

It could retain all, some or none of the existing services provided at Skipton General and introduce a wide raft of new care facilities.

Mrs Jones said the local population would be extensively consulted so Chard could work out what was necessary, desirable or better provided elsewhere.

Against that background the Government has set a model for localised services called "ambulatory care" and says there is the potential to provide services that integrate primary care with a minor injuries unit, outpatient clinics and diagnostics as well as social care and other community services.

The Government's report cites Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton as an example of the new concept.

It states: "A local minor injuries unit provides general outpatient and rapid diagnostic services for the local population, along with rehabilitation services for older people and people with physical disabilities. Local outpatient services include general medicine and surgery, orthopaedics, dermatology, diabetes, ear, nose and throat, gynaecology, rheumatology and sexual health."

Of course there is no guarantee that Skipton's "new hospital" will have anything like the range of services as Roehampton.

A minor injuries unit - if one is incorporated into the new Skipton "hospital" - would be mainly staffed by nurses able to assess minor ailments; for example cuts, sprains, high temperatures which might or might not necessitate a referral to the accident and emergency unit at Airedale. For locals, an unnecessary journey and long wait might be avoided.

The current hospital site is owned by Airedale NHS Trust and negotiations must take place over how the land is dispersed. Airedale is certain to want some share of proceeds from the possible sale to be ploughed into funding its provision of acute services.

Mrs Jones regretted that Chard could not be more specific about the future of Skipton's hospital. Its closure had been proposed within weeks of Chard being formed, she said.

However Chard was committed to working with local people, doctors and Airedale to ensure that the best possible solution for delivering primary health care to the Craven population.