Belhaven-area residents will have an opportunity next week to ask questions about the planned closure of Vidant Pungo Hospital.

Vidant Health officials will participate in an educational forum on plans for the Belhaven hospital and the future of health-care delivery in the area from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Wilkinson Center, 144 W. Main St., Belhaven.

The forum was announced by Vidant Health and Belhaven Mayor Adam O’Neal, who had been seeking such a meeting since the town learned about Vidant Health’s plans to close the hospital, which has been in Belhaven since 1947.

“The public will have an opportunity to sign up to provide comments or ask questions, lasting up to three minutes each. You must sign up before the meeting begins in order to comment,” reads an email from Beth Anne Atkins, a spokeswoman for Vidant Health.

Dr. David Herman, Vidant Health’s president and chief executive officer, and Roger Robertson, president of Vidant Community Hospitals, are scheduled to participate in the forum, Atkins said Wednesday afternoon. Other Vidant Health officials likely will attend but not participate directly in the forum, she said.

Earlier this month, the Vidant Community Hospitals board decided to close the hospital and replace it with a multispecialty clinic that will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Plans call for a phased closing of the hospital during the next five or six months.

As services at the hospital are shut down, they will be offered at area Vidant Medical Group physician’s offices. Those services include specialty clinics, 24-hour-a-day care, laboratories, radiology and physical therapy.

Vidant Health expects to break ground on the new multispecialty clinic later this year. The new facility is expected to take about 18 months to complete.