REHABILITATION units in Rossendale and Pendle are set to close in September.

East Lancashire Primary Care Trust has announced that the rehabilitation day centres based at the Health Hub, in Bacup Road, Rawtenstall, and Pendle Community Hospital, in Leeds Road, Nelson, will be closed and replaced with care in the community visits.

News of the closures has been slammed as ‘a cut too far’ by service users across both boroughs.

The Mayor of Rossendale, Coun Gladys Sandiford, whose husband Jim needed rehabilitation care after suffering a brain haemorrhage in 2005, said: “I absolutely deplore the fact that yet again another service is being withdrawn from the people of Rossendale.

“I would like to know who has decided that it would be better to assess patients in their own homes. It is obviously a cost-cutting exercise.

"People who suffer strokes, or other life-changing illnesses, often get depressed and regular visits to units like these enable them to see others in a similar situation improve and avoid isolation.”

Health bosses say they are trying to ‘modernise’ the day centre service and create a more ‘individualised, tailored approach to rehabilitation’.

The service is aimed at patients recovering from falls and strokes. Currently 50 patients can be seen a week in Rossendale, and 45 in Pendle.

Pendle Council leader Coun Mike Blomeley said: “I think the fact the PCT did not widely consult with its partners, and the community, before making this decision has upset a lot of people.”

The falls clinic will continue to be run from Pendle Community Hospital, and the birthing centre, community physiotherapy, and podiatry services will still be offered in Rossendale.

Figures for 2010 show the service is under-used, with an average patient attendance of just over 50per cent.

An East Lancashire PCT spokesman said: “The change in model will improve access to a range of services and the benefits would be to provide an equitable, efficient and flexible service to meet the needs of East Lancashire patients.”