Protesters gathered outside Swansea County Hall

Swansea NHS Trust wants to shut Fairwood Hospital and ward one of Hill House as part of a �12m recovery plan.

Swansea's Local Health Board (LHB) deferred a decision following a meeting on Tuesday.

Hospital staff were joined by other Unison members to protest beforehand.

Plans to shut Fairwood Hospital were first raised last year but mothballed after the presentation of a 7,000-signature petition opposing the move.

'Moral obscenity'

But the NHS Trust resurrected the proposals and has been consulting over the summer.

Nursing support worker Dela Davies said: "It's been like a sentence hanging over us.

"It's a moral obscenity that they want to shut these services because it's the elderly and vulnerable that will be at risk without this service. We will fight all the way until there is no more that we can do."

Swansea Council has also opposed the plan in its current form because it is worried it will place additional pressures on its social services department.

Fairwood Hospital is also used as accommodation for patients travelling to the city for radiotherapy treatment.

The NHS Trust said these people will go to a specially adapted suite at Singleton Hospital, if the move goes ahead.