Proposals to shut a 15-bed dementia ward at Chepstow Community Hospital have been criticised by a local MP.
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has earmarked to close St Pierre Ward as part of a wider redesign of mental health services for older adults.
Patients would be treated in future at Ysbyty’r Tri Chwm in Ebbw Vale, or at St Woolos Hospital in Newport, depending on where in Monmouthshire they live.
But Monmouth MP David Davies said this would result in huge travel difficulties for Monmouthshire patients, especially those in rural areas where public transport is infrequent, expensive and slow.
“It seems ludicrous that a county the size of Monmouthshire, which has a rapidly ageing population, will potentially be denied access to local mental health facilities,” he said.
“Instead, patients will be further penalised by having to waste time and money on unnecessary travel to other dementia units across Gwent.
“I do hope the forthcoming public consultation on these proposals will indeed be genuine and not just a paper exercise as numerous issues need to be examined very carefully.”
Mr Davies added he had written to the health board to ask for an explanation of the thinking behind the redesign idea, which appears to have been prompted by “persistent difficulties” in recruiting enough nurses to staff older adult mental health inpatient units.