HEALTH planners went on the defensive this week over cost cutting plans to axe Thornbury Hospital's Grace ward - a highly valued care facility for older people with mental health problems.

Transferring the ward's 10 beds - plus four for respite care - to Blackberry Hill Hospital in Fishponds, Bristol, is a major element in a proposed shake-up in mental health services for the elderly in Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust officials are currently consulting over the planned re-structuring which would help meet a £2.8million budget shortfall.

A mood of scepticism pervaded a consultatation meeting in Thornbury's Armstrong Hall on Tuesday - but health chiefs refuted suggestions that it was a "done deal" and that the exercise was a sham.

Steve Hubbard, director of commisisoning for South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust, said: "The consultation is not a sham. The whole point is for the health bodies to listen to what people have to say. No decisions have been made and we are not trying to railroad anything through. The proposals have been put together in good faith."

Officials say that as well as saving cash the proposals will deliver significant improvements in mental health care for older people across the whole of South Gloucestershre.

The meeting heard that although a decision to continue operating Grace Ward at Thornbury was a possibility, it would have cost implications for other services.

Thornbury town councillor Clive Parkinson said health chiefs should know the real issues before making the final decision.

"We are told that Blackberry Hill will mean better medical services because the staff and equipment will all be there and it will be bigger and better," he said. "But that has to be balanced against the loss of local support that Grace ward patients get from the community in Thornbury."

A move to Fishponds would mean that mums, dads and grandchildren could no longer "just pop in" to visit loved ones, he said.

"Most people do not want Grace ward to close and that is the message you should be taking back to the Trust," he said.

Answering a question from Cllr Clare Fardell, officials said that, should the move go ahead, there would be a minimum six months delay before the old Grace ward facilities could be utilised for other patient care services.

Charles EardleyWilmot, of the Concern for Thornbury lobby group, said it was appalling that the only mental health unit available to the people of South Gloucestershire would be in Bristol.

Consultation ends next month and a decision is likely later in the spring or early summer.