Increasing centralisation of our NHS is justified on the grounds that some very expensive, specialised, acute services need to cover a large area to be viable and attract top quality staff.

But a host of other hospital services, especially those whose patients are mainly the young or elderly, also need to be close enough to be easily accessible by public transport.

And that's why it is easy to understand the apprehension at the looming closure of the last overnight ward at Rossendale Hospital.

Ward five, with 14 beds for elderly mental health patients is to go to Burnley General a move described by Rossendale Council's leader as hospital closure by stealth.

Elderly relatives of such patients will find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get by public transport from the Valley to Burnley to visit.

Officials say the closure is necessary because it is no longer safe for staff and patients to work in an isolated hospital overnight without support for emergencies.

But that is the inevitable result of winding the hospital down steadily over the past few years.

With an ageing population such services will become more and more important. They need to be improved, not cut.