HEALTH chiefs have been rapped on the knuckles after deciding to axe services at a Bishopstoke hospital a year earlier than planned.

For the first time, Hampshire County Council's health review committee called on Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare Trust (WEHT) bosses to justify their decision to close in-patient facilities at The Mount without letting health committees and the public have their say.

They claim its contrary to the trust's legal requirements.

Under the move, The Mount patients would be transferred to a new ward at Winchester's Royal County Hampshire Hospital.

The committee has ordered the trust to hold a four-week consultation to explore viable alternative arrangements, including ways to keep The Mount running, with local primary care trusts.

It felt that although there was a significant enough risk for services to be severed at the end of August this year due to low staffing, they were unhappy with the lack of communication between the trust and local PCTS in exploring other options.

Committee chairman Raymond Ellis said: "We are all on a learning curve. The trust will get to learn that consultation is the key to getting it right."

But trust bosses have warned that ultimately they have a duty to ensure that patients receive quality care in a safe environment and can override any recommendations on those grounds.

Chief executive of WEHT, Rod Halls, said: "People will have to bear in mind that our proposal may be the one that we go for.

"We think this temporary move is absolutely the right thing to do under the circumstances."

After consultations earlier this year, Bishopstoke and Eastleigh residents were informed that The Mount hospital would make way for a new rehabilitation-based model of healthcare.

It had been hoped that existing services would not be scrapped before this was firmly in place.

Councillor Glynn Davies-Dear from Eastleigh Borough Council, said that the trust's decision was now giving out mixed messages to people who attended the consultation and should have been properly highlighted then.

But the trust said it had already outlined the possibility in clear contingency arrangements before and after the consultation and denied it was savings motivated.

It stressed that for months staffing levels have been in dire straits with some nurses missing annual leave and putting their own health on the backburner to keep things ticking over.

Dr Chris Gordon, who has organised services at The Mount for the last nine years, said: "I don't want to see the death of The Mount by a thousand tiny little bites. We should not be continuing the service out of desperation."

But Ken Dufton of Eastleigh Community Services said: "This seems to be an example of NHS trusts not working together. The public does not understand the different functions between the trusts and proposals like these leads to a loss of confidence in the running of the NHS."

In a joint statement Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, together with both Eastleigh and Test Valley South and Mid Hampshire PCTs, welcomed the conclusions and recommendations from Hampshire County Council's Health Review Committee.

It added: "The trust and PCTs are committed to continue to work together to ensure that services can be safely and sustainably retained at The Mount until the new local service is developed. We will be exploring the various options and investigating the possibility of bringing forward the implementation of the new model of service.''