ALMOST 3,000 people have now put pen to paper to back the Star's Don't Do It, Hewitt campaign - and all their names will be printed in tomorrow's Bucks Free Press.

The Star offices had one last surge of forms from readers this week urging Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt not to axe Wycombe's A & E department after hospital officials warned more services could be moved in future.

Wycombe Hospital has already had its trauma surgery move to Stoke Mandeville, and women's and children's departments are also due to move.

The campaign was launched after Buckinghamshire Hospitals' NHS Trust said it could not guarantee the future of the A & E department after admitting more changes could be forced through by the Department of Health.

We asked readers to fill out our Don't Do It, Hewitt form over the last six weeks and each week our post bag has been full to the brim with responses.

Tomorrow we step up the campaign by printing the names of everyone who has backed our fight to secure emergency services in our sister paper, the Bucks Free Press.

The Star campaign has been backed by Wycombe MP Paul Goodman and High Wycombe Mayor Darren Hayday.

Cllr Hayday said: "We won't have a hospital in the end if it carries on like this, we'll just to have to heal ourselves."

Alan Bedford, acting chief executive at the hospital trust, has stressed there are no plans to close Wycombe's A & E and said the public would be involved if any major changes were discussed.

Stuart McFadyen, from the Department of Health, said any changes would need to go through a public consultation before the Health Secretary could get involved. He said: "Any changes are a long way off. This is not something she would comment on at this stage."