PLANS have been made by NHS bosses to discharge 25 patients from wards at an East Lancashire hospital over the next 18 months under the latest incarnation of “care in the community”.

Under a “fast-track” scheme unveiled by the government, the county has been selected to take part in work which it is said will transform learning disability services nationwide.

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And this will result in significant changes at Whalley-based Calderstones Foundation NHS Trust, which will see a phased series of discharges between now and early 2017.

The driving force behind the changes is an NHS England target of reducing the number of in-patient beds over the next five years.

Overall this would see a 25 per cent reduction in medium-secure beds and a 50 reduction in low-secure beds, with 100 short-term assessment places being created in tandem.

Before next April, for Calderstones alone, this will mean 17 patient discharges across the low and medium security beds provided across the Mitton Road site, though this could alter according to care reviews.

County officials say they have been working closely with Calderstones, to mitigate the impacts on the NHS foundation trust, which has been in advanced talks with another learning disability organisation, Merseycare over a possible merge or takeover since early 2014.

County councillors have heard that some cases may also be complicated as some patients are under restrictions placed on them by the Ministry of Justice, as convicted offenders.

The pan-Lancashire transformation programme has been awarded £640,000.