A PATIENT and her family are devastated after she was transferred almost 270 miles from a York psychiatric unit to another near Brighton.

Colleen Finnegan said that she and other family members used to be able to visit her sister Maureen Finnegan at low security Clifton House in Clifton whenever they wanted, at the cost of just £3.50 for a return bus fare from elsewhere in York.

But now, following Maureen's move to medium-security The Dene in Sussex, and with an Anytime Return train ticket from York to Brighton costing £296, Colleen said she could not afford to pay even one visit.

Colleen, who lives at the Peasholme centre for homeless people, said Maureen's four children would also be unable to travel down to see her. "I'm really upset about it," she said. "I would have thought they could find somewhere nearer than that."

The sisters' mother Olga said she was concerned about the impact on Colleen's health of the transfer, as well as Maureen's. "Colleen has not been well and they are very close," she said.

York Press:
Maureen’s sister Colleen is now unable to visit her sister

Maureen, 43, who formerly lived in Nunnery Lane and is being transferred following an incident at Clifton House, spoke to The Press just before she was transferred away from the unit.

She said she was very upset that her family would no longer be unable to visit her after she had been staying at Clifton House under section for the past four years.

A spokeswoman for the mental health charity Mind said she hoped Maureen would be transferred to a hospital nearer to home as soon as possible.

A spokesman for Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust, which runs Clifton House, said the wellbeing and safety of its service users and members of staff was its highest priority.

"If the clinical needs of a patient require them to be transferred to a different type of specialist unit, many of which are regional or national services, we will ensure that this happens as quickly as possible and work with our national commissioning colleagues to locate a bed," he said.

"In urgent situations, where the only available specialist bed may not be local, we will also work with commissioners to ensure the service user is returned to a more local service at the earliest opportunity.

"The Trust is not responsible for the commissioning arrangements and provision of medium secure mental health inpatient units nationally as this sits with NHS England.”

NHS England has declined to comment to The Press.

The Press reported in December 2013 that patients with mental health problems from York and Selby had been sent as far afield as Glasgow and London due to a lack of suitable treatment or available places locally.