HEALTH bosses in Burnley were today expected to respond to a huge public outcry by announcing a stay of execution for a day hospital for the elderly which had been earmarked for closure.

The future of the Burnley General Hospital unit was thrown into doubt after health managers proposed to close it and provide a more modern service at other hospitals.

In a report to today's Burnley NHS Trust board meeting, chief executive David Chew says few of the 120 patients who attended the day hospital required the type of active medical care provided by an NHS day hospital.

He says about half the patients only require social care and those who need some medical service could be adequately catered for in the community.

His comments outline the reasons behind the plans to close the Burnley unit and provide a more appropriate medical-care only service at Rossendale General and Pendle Community Hospitals. But trust directors were today expected to save the Burnley service for at least 18 months - thanks to massive public opposition, but also after East Lancashire Health Authority agreed to pick up the tab for those existing patients who only needed social care.

Mr Chew says the trust had the greatest sympathy with the reservations over the speed of the proposed closure, but also recognised that every day's delay in taking the decision to remodel the service was a day lost for some person who would benefit from it.

He warns: "This is the dilemma that we will have to face more and more as the role of the NHS becomes more defined at the end of the century."

Mr Chew makes it clear the trust would have had problems trying to phase the proposed closure over a long period:

"Certainly we at the trust realised we did not have the resources both to continue to provide the existing type of social care service and at the same time move towards a more modern type of services," he says.

"Equally there is a responsibility on the trust to deliver value for money," he adds.

Figures showing the use of the three day hospitals show that while Rossendale and Pendle patients stay for only a matter of weeks, the social care provision at Burnley means attendances often carry on for years.

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