CONTROVERSIAL proposals to close the £2m Grovely rehabilitation unit at Fountain Way hospital in Salisbury, and to reduce the numbers of intensive care beds and acute inpatient beds, are to go ahead.

But the south Wiltshire primary care trust has been told to expand some areas in the care of the mentally ill and enlarge the existing day hospital at the Fountain Way complex in Wilton Road.

Changes to the trust's original proposals have come from the Wiltshire county council overview and scrutiny committee, which has studied the plans and the public's comments, following a five-month consultation exercise.

The trust has now been told to prepare a programme to implement the plan over the coming months and to discuss the programme with users, carers, managers and clinicians.

The plan will see more psychology services linked to GP practices and the existing day hospital at Fountain Way expanded, as well as expansion of the older people's community mental health team to provide extra support to older people and their carers.

The revised plans will also see an expansion of the crisis team, together with its resources and the expansion of the assertive outreach team.

Despite opposition from many carers, the number of psychiatric intensive-care beds in the hospital's Ashdown unit will be reduced from six to four. But the committee has said the number of acute inpatient beds should be reduced from 24 to 19, and not to 18 as originally planned.

The extra bed will provide both crisis support and occasionally can be used for an older person to be admitted, if appropriate.

The 18-month-old Grovely rehab unit is to close, after the committee accepted that the consultation process had "demonstrated that there was a need for crisis support, rather than inpatient rehabilitation services".

The committee has told the trust the additional bed on the acute ward can be used and, in addition, the committee wants the development of a residential crisis service, so that support can be provided away from the Beechlydene acute unit.

Another controversial issue was reducing the number of NHS-funded beds for older people.

This is to go ahead, but the number of beds available at all times will remain the same as at present.

What will happen is that one of the Amblecroft units will be turned into a 20-bed NHS ward.

Further beds will be funded by a combination of NHS and social services, meaning that not all older people's beds will be paid for solely by the NHS.