Campaigners are fighting plans to axe the only GP surgery in a Hampshire village with almost 6,000 residents.
Dibden Purlieu-based Forestside Medical Practice is seeking consent to close its Marchwood branch after being hit by the national shortage of GPs.
The move has angered Marchwood residents who have to rely on public transport.
Emma Cooke, 41, who suffers from epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, has launched an online petition in a bid to save the facility.
Miss Cooke said a trip to the Dibden Purlieu site meant catching two buses, resulting in a long and time-consuming round trip.
She told the Daily Echo: "Our local surgery is being threatened with closure. This would be fine if everybody could drive, or there was great public transport, or nobody got old, sick or disabled."
The petition says: "For me and many others in our community, the local GP practice is not just a medical facility, it is a lifeline.
"The proposed closure threatens to leave us without immediate access to vital health services - an unacceptable prospect."
Marchwood and Eling district councillor Richard Young said he was "strongly opposed" to the prospect of the village being left without a GP surgery.
Describing public transport in the area as inadequate he added: "I am particularly concerned about creating an unintended barrier to the public accessing primary healthcare."
Residents have taken to social media to voice their anger and dismay at the proposal.
One man who has lived in Marchwood for nearly 40 years said: "Travelling to the Dibden Purlieu surgery requires a number 8 bus to Hythe and then a long wait for a number 9 bus.
"For unwell elderly patients this is a step too far."
A statement on the practice's website cites the shortage of healthcare professionals in the area and also refers to its role in supporting the Urgent Care Centre at the new Hythe Hospital.
It says: "Staff are being spread thinly across three sites, and on some occasions the Marchwood site has had to close early."
The statement describes the surgery as an outdated facility that fails to meet standards set by the Disability Discrimination Act and the Care Quality Commission.
It also cites the cost of carrying out the necessary refurbishment and the problem of trying to deliver healthcare services while the work was being carried out.
Plans to close the surgery are due to be debated by members of the NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board on May 23.
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