DOUBT has been cast over the future of a day hospital for elderly people in York.

Meadowfields, off Tadcaster Road, is a unit providing inpatient assessment for elderly people, and specialises in dementia and mental health conditions.

A memo from an NHS manager and circulated among senior NHS staff and seen by The Press states that Meadowfield's day hospital service is due to close - something which has been categorically denied by the Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust.

The memo states: "Meadowfields provides the only day hospital across the trust within our older people's services. Agreement has been reached internally and with the commissioners that the provision of this service should be ceased. The day hospital has never been funded and is a cost pressure to the trust of around £60,000 a year. Clearly this is not sustainable going forward... There are 20 patients that are going to be affected by the closure."

However, Leeds and York NHS Partnership Foundation Trust - which is handing over the running of mental health service in York to Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust in the autumn, said it would not be closing inpatient or day service care but they did suggest the day service is winding down.

Lynn Parkinson, deputy chief operating officer at Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Recently the number of people attending the day service has reduced as referrals have decreased.

“We provide a range of community-based support for people who have similar needs to those that might attend the day service at Meadowfields. Some of the people who currently use the day service are ready to be discharged and we are working with partners and other agencies to ensure that appropriate support plans are in place for them.

“We would like to reassure people that discharges are only planned when someone is ready to leave the service and that any required on-going support is available to them.”

Earlier this year Meadowfields was among a number of elderly people's wards - with others including Peppermill Court off Huntington Road, Worsley Court in Selby and a ward in Bootham Hospital - to be rated as inadequate overall by the Care Quality Commission.