A PUBLIC meeting is to be held over controversial plans to close a York Hospital unit.

Archways in Clarendon Court, between Haxby Road and Wigginton Road, cares for 350, mainly elderly, people a year to prevent patients being admitted to York Hospital or to allow earlier discharge.

It was announced earlier this month that the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) had decided to close the unit at the end of the year. Instead patients will be cared for at home.

Now York Central MP Rachael Maskell says she has been contacted by constituents who are worried about the decision to close Archways.

Her office said: "The Trust believe that patients will be better off going straight from hospital to home with additional community rehabilitation, but to fund this, will close Archways which currently costs the Trust £1.5m a year to run. The Trust ended the last financial year with a £18,825,000 deficit.

"Over the last two years the Trust has struggled to reach its A&E waiting time targets and removing rehabilitation beds will put further pressure on the system, including having the option for patients that require extra support to transfer to a rehabilitation setting from home, rather than into an acute setting."

Ms Maskell said staff and service users have expressed concerns about the decision.

She has called a public meeting for anyone with an interest in health in York and this to allow people the opportunity to listen to those involved and ask questions.

The closure of Archways follows last year's sudden closure of Bootham Park Hospital and ongoing concerns about the state of NHS finances in York. Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has been put in special measures due to concerns about leadership, finances, planning and performance.

Issues have been exacerbated by cuts to public health funding and integration of health and social care.

-The meeting will take place at Friends Meeting House, Lower Friargate, on Wednesday, 31 August at 7pm. Everyone is welcome