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CRUNCH talks over controversial plans to close a mental unit are too rushed, says a former patient.

Bob Leveritt who suffers from severe depression is "disappointed" by the short consultation plans to shut Sheffield House in Malvern.

We revealed in your Worcester News how mental health chiefs were told to conduct a "wide consultation" with patients over proposals to close the eight-bed unit in Court Road which has proved a lifeline to Mr Leveritt and others.

Sheffield House is for people who suffer mental illness but are not ill enough to be treated in a psychiatric ward.

The Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust was told to conduct talks with patients by health watchdog the overview and scrutiny committee at a meeting on Tuesday, April 15.

But the consultation will end on May 31, allowing the trust to respond to committee chairman John Campion the following week.

Mr Leveritt, aged 66, of Lansdowne Terrace Malvern, said patients had not been given long enough.

The Malvern Mind chairman said: "I'm disappointed that it's going to be such a brief consultation period. I had always understood public consultations would last 90 days."

Mick Mather, Director of Integrated Mental Health Services, will be writing to service users, MP Michael Spicer, all Malvern Hills county and district councillors, Bob Leveritt and Louise Aston, who asked that it be kept open, Malvern Mind, Re-Think and the Worcestershire Mental Health Network.

The trust will be in touch with anyone who has received services from Sheffield House in the last six months and three meetings have also been arranged with patients in May.

Staff employed at Sheffield House or as part of the Malvern Community Mental Health Team and the trust's Service User and Carer Advisory Group which safeguards patient interests will be involved.

The trust says the closure of the unit will save it £350,000, helping it close a £2.4 million gap in its finances.

If it is closed Sheffield House would be transformed into homes for people with mental illness and floating' support workers would be drafted in to care for them.

Staff would be offered other jobs within the trust and the new scheme would be managed by a registered social landlord.

Mr Mather said: "I think we have given enough time to respond. We're not going to do a full 90 day consultation because we were not required to do that. We had to strike the balance somewhere."

1:38pm Thursday 8th May 2008

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