OPTIONS are being considered for the future use of the Hillside Rehabilitation Unit when hospital beds are removed from the building.

Herefordshire's Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is due to remove the beds from the council-owned building at the end of this month.

The CCG wants to provide better care at home for when patients come out of hospital and is working with Herefordshire Council to provide this.

The council said it is currently developing a feasibility and options appraisal for the future use of Hillside.

The spokeswoman added: "There’s a number of options being scoped with a view to supporting the future needs of vulnerable people in Herefordshire, while ensuring financial sustainability."

Anna Coda, chairman of Hereford and South Herefordshire Labour Party, is concerned that the council is not ready for the closure of Hillside.

She said: "As well as meeting with the CCG to express my concern at the planned closure or the Redhill Rehabilitation Centre I also asked a question of Herefordshire Council as they are the main provider (commissioner at least) of social care.

"In response to asking what provisions and financial arrangements they had planned to support the workload from additional patients discharged directly to home, I received the following reply: 'The council are working closely with health partners to support the move to enable more people to go home once they are medically fit following hospital treatment rather than stay in a hospital bed.

'The impact of delaying the move home greatly impacts on the person's ability to recover and regain confidence and key skills. However Herefordshire will still have a large number of community beds and if someone has need to be in one of these beds, they will be transferred to one.'"

Mrs Coda said she did not believe this was a reassuring response and described it as a "vague statement of wishful thinking."

She went on to say that the community beds referred to are not within the city.

A spokeswoman for the council told the Hereford Times that a 'Home First' service had been developed to support individuals within their own homes.

She said: "This will provide a multi-disciplinary reablement approach between health and social care partners to enable individuals who have had a period within a hospital setting to return home. This service commenced in November 2017 and has received funding from the Better Care Fund to ensure additional capacity is available within the community."

The CCG has not confirmed a closure date for Hillside.