CALDERSTONES Hospital will close within the next three years, hospital bosses have said.

The closure of 223 beds at the Whalley-based facility, which is the only NHS hospital in Britain that specialises in learning disabilities, was announced last October.

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The Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust will cease to exist from July with Mersey Care being drafted in to take over the running of the institution.

The trust has now announced an agreement that the site will permanently close during the next three years.

Whalley councillor Joyce Holgate said she was not surprised but remained concerned about what will go in its place and about jobs.

She said: “I have been very involved with Calderstones for the past 20 years and I am very disappointed that it is going to go in three years' time.

“But that is the way things are going now, I am just concerned about the loss of jobs and what’s going to happen to it now.

“I hope the staff do find other employment and the building is put to good use.”

The closure comes as part of a £45million, three-year plan aiming to give care to hundreds of patients across England with learning difficulties in the community, rather than in hospital units.

Union officials at the threatened East Lancashire trust unveiled a petition in December to Parliament in a desperate bid to preserve the expertise of trained staff.

If the figure reaches 10,000 the organisers are entitled to a response from Parliament.

A spokesman for Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said: “The full business case for Acquisition of Calderstones Partnership NHS FT by Mersey Care NHS Trust has been approved by both trust boards.

“This was subject to recurrent and non-recurrent resource being agreed with commissioners. This has now been agreed and will allow the Calderstones site at Whalley to be closed during the next three years as per the policy statement from NHS England in October 2015. In parallel, a new clinical model will be implemented to replace these services and improve the patient pathway.

“This will be provided and developed by Mersey Care Trust.”

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said that if the buildings are not put to good use it will be a ‘shocking’ waste of taxpayers money.

He said: “The facility must not be lost. We have some fantastic expertise in there helping the most vulnerable in our society and I am hoping there will be an alternative use for the buildings, some of which are brand new.

“It would be a shocking waste of taxpayers' money if it were to be demolished, we have put millions into that site.

“I hope in the future the building can still be used for mental health care or something like dementia care.”