A HEALTH supremo today revealed that the admission of patients to the Calderstones medium secure unit will be put on hold for the "immediate future".

Christine Kirk, chairman of Calderstones NHS Trust, also moved to allay fears of villagers after concern was expressed over staffing levels in the unit.

Her comments come after David Wynne, a former nurse at the unit, which houses dozens of violent patients, warned that residents in Whalley could be at risk unless staffing levels were improved.

But Mrs Kirk said "new management arrangements" currently being introduced would ensure the safety of patients and staff. She also revealed that admissions to the unit were being put on hold.

She said: "The responsibility of the trust board is the care and security of the patients and the well-being of staff.

"It is for this reason that all admissions are made by a clinical team which is comprised of nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists and other specialists. "Admissions were stopped in the autumn and the only ones accepted since have been with their full agreement. We as a board support the decision that admissions should be put on hold for the immediate future."

She said there were some staff vacancies at Calderstones and steps were being taken to redeploy and retrain existing staff from the long-stay side of the trust which closes next year.

Mrs Kirk added: "The new management arrangements being introduced at the moment will ensure the continuing safety of patients and staff."

Mrs Whalley, the former head of forensic services, has taken up her new role as deputy nurse director. She will be responsible for the monitoring and improvement of standards across the service."

She stressed that Calderstones patients had a learning disability rather than a mental illness and did not require treatment and care under conditions of high security, as provided by Ashworth Hospital.

She added that many patients had not been referred through the courts, although they needed high quality care in an environment that offered "good staffing levels and some measure of security".

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