Only two people turned up to voice their concerns to health bosses

The hospital has suffered a series of temporary ward closures over the last three months, and Powys Local Health Board set up the meeting for local people to express their concerns on a one-to-one basis.

The closures happened because there were not enough nurses with the necessary medical skills to run all the wards.

Among the patients affected were two women in their 90s who were refused admission because of a lack of beds.

The market town's deputy mayor, Sylvia Rowlands said she was 'disgusted' by the lack of interest in the meeting, which had been set up two weeks earlier during crisis talks between the board and groups in Machynlleth.

"I find this total lack of support disgusting. It seems you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink it.

"People are always coming up to me in the street complaining about the hospital but they always seem to clam up and let somebody else do the work.

"I don't know what else we can do."

Two elderly patients were told in November they could not be admitted

Meanwhile, the chief officer of Montgomeryshire Community Health Council, John Howard said: "I am disappointed because people will do a lot of work on the future of the hospital only to find that locals will object rather than influence the hospital's future at an early stage."

And a spokesman for Powys Local Health Board added: "We would have liked to have seen more people getting involved at this early stage."

However, he pointed out that there would be another opportunity for people to comment in 2004 when a public consultation exercise would take place.

He said that the future of the hospital would depend on what patients needed, rather than on what funding was available at the time.