HEALTH bosses are in urgent negotiation with GPs to re-open a mental health care unit.

The £1.5m Charter House unit at Trowbridge Hospital has been forced to turn patients suffering from Alzheimers' and other mental illnesses away because it has not got enough medical cover.

The health trust has been unable to recruit a staff grade doctor for the unit despite months of advertising.

Psychiatrists at the unit have been forced to help out with medical care but now Avon and Wiltshire NHS Trust has stopped taking in any more patients to ease the strain.

Just seven out of 27 beds on the unit are occupied.

Alzheimer's sufferer Phyllis Styles, 74, was due to go in to the home for respite care on Monday, December 10.

Her 74-year-old husband Gordon was told just hours before she was due to be admitted that the unit could not take her.

Mr Styles of Horton Close, Bradford on Avon, said:

"I normally take her in to Charter House every few weeks for respite care.

"It's good for me because it gives me a break from caring for her but also my wife gets good care from the staff there.

"I'm not sure what we are going to do now and there's so much to do before Christmas."

Patients are being sent to the Cameron Ward at Chippenham Hospital or Green Lane Hospital in Devizes.

Mr Styles said: "We're not sure what's happening at the moment but Trowbridge is so easy for us to get to.

"I think we would have problems if my wife could only go to Chippenham or Devizes."

The trust says it is telling staff at the unit, which has been praised nationally for its quality of care, that it will not be closed permanently.

But a member of staff at the home said: "We have been told it will close and staff and patients are all desperately worried.''

"The last thing we want is another Ward two situation."

Ward two in Warminster cared for elderly patients suffering from mental illness. It was closed in 1999.

A trust spokesman said: "The Trust has been in contact with the four GP practices in Trowbridge and will be meeting with representatives.

"We are also exploring a range of other options.

"We would like to apologise to patients and their carers for any inconvenience that this may cause.''

The spokesman was unable to say if any agreement will be made or the unit will be re-opened in time for Christmas.

If it stays closed emergency cases will have to go to Devizes or Chippenham.