Mental health unit facing axe threat (From Worcester News)

Mental health unit facing axe threat

9:49am Tuesday 1st July 2008 in

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HEALTH chiefs will meet in a fortnight to decide the fate of a mental health unit which faces the axe.

The decision on whether to close Sheffield House in Malvern will be taken by Worcestershire Mental Health NHS Partnership Trust board on Wednesday, July 16.

The eight-bed unit in Court Road provides 24- hour face-to-face care for patients who are mentally unwell but are not ill enough to be treated in a psychiatric ward such as the one at Newtown Hospital, Worcester. Trust chiefs want to close the unit because they say only 40 per cent of the beds are filled.

But former patients say it was a lifeline to them in times of need and should be kept open.

The trust will take into account a consultation conducted by Worcestershire County Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee, which drew 19 responses, each of which will receive an individual letter in reply.

Staff, patients, councillors and MPs were consulted about the changes, which will save the trust £350,000 and help plug a £2.4 million black hole in its finances.

Harriett Baldwin, Conservative parliamentary candidate for West Worcestershire, said the trust’s negotiating and consultative committee rubber-stamped the closure last week and that the health overview and scrutiny committee will write to the trust to say its concerns about the closure have now been addressed. Neither the trust or Worcestershire County Council were able to confirm this. Mrs Baldwin said: “My overwhelming concern is that the most likely residential alternative for service users is now Newtown Hospital, which I know is seen to be very institutional. I am arranging to visit Newtown Hospital to see for myself whether what I have heard about the facility is true.”

Mick Mather, director of integrated mental health services, said the unit was not cost-effective and he said he had not yet received a response from the council’s committee which commissioned the consultation.