A community hospital for south Bristol is due to open at least two years late.

Contracts have not yet been signed or finances secured for the £54-million hospital and work will not start for at least two months.

The 60-bed hospital was originally supposed to have been finished by the autumn of this year. That target was then put back to early next year but NHS Bristol, which is responsible for health spending in the city, now says it is aiming for construction work to be completed by autumn 2011.

People of south Bristol are being urged to continue campaigning for the Hengrove Park hospital to ensure that it is delivered.

Ben Bennett, of NHS Bristol, said the team is working hard to ensure that the hospital is built as soon as possible but no assurances can be made about when work will start.

Health staff and some residents have been briefed on the hold-ups with the project, which are being blamed on the global financial crisis.

Plans to use modular construction with much of the building being put together off-site have been abandoned because a deal could not be agreed with the German sub-contractor.

Using traditional building methods means that the project is likely to take a year longer than first hoped and some of the planning process has had to be repeated.

In a process similar to private finance initiatives, the hospital will be funded by a bank and a deal is yet to be secured. Bristol Infracare LIFT, the company behind the project, is working with contractors to come up with the best financial deal.

The regional arm of the Department of Health approved the project in January but commercial negotiations need to be completed before the project can start. Final Government approval is also needed.

Mr Bennett said that while promises cannot be made about exactly when the new hospital will open, the project is moving forward.

He said: "We are confident that we can get this scheme built but we cannot be complacent. The public need to keep demanding this hospital."

The hospital project is part of the £100m first phase of the regeneration of Hengrove Park, which also includes a college and leisure centre.

MP for Bristol South, Dawn Primarolo said she is optimistic that the contract will be signed soon.

She said: "I keep it under very, very close scrutiny and I am certainly still very optimistic and not concerned."

Ms Primarolo said that constituents can write to her at her constituency office at PO Box 1002, Bristol, BS99 1WH or directly to NHS Bristol at South Plaza, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NX, to show their support for the hospital.

Work has started on the college but, as reported in the Evening Post in March, the leisure complex is about six months behind schedule and is also not expected to open until 2011.