The last remaining beds at a hospital have closed – despite a consultation continuing over their future.
Leek Moorlands Hospital’s Saddler Ward has now shut meaning there are no community beds left in the town.
However, NHS bosses today insisted the move was ‘temporary’ and a final decision will only be made in the New Year.
It comes after more than 100 beds have been axed at Bradwell, Haywood, Longton Cottage and Cheadle hospitals.
A campaign calling for mothballed beds at Bradwell Hospital to reopen this winter to ease pressure on the Royal Stoke University Hospital is ongoing.
Neil Carr, chief executive of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent NHS Partnership Trust, said: “We can confirm that Saddler Ward and Cottage Ward at Leek Moorlands Hospital have closed.
“The wards have been decommissioned by North Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Group as part of the temporary community hospital bed closures.
Campaigners today pledged to continue their fight to save the beds in Leek.
Councillor Pam Wood, who founded Save Leek Hospital Action Group and is a former nurse and ward manager, said: “The beds and the hospital are vital to the people of the Staffordshire Moorlands.
“I know that more than 100 people are now being looked after in care homes in Stoke-on-Trent at a cost to the NHS.
“People from the Moorlands were being put in Stadium Court in Cobridge, which has now been put into special measures, which means that they cannot admit anymore.
Leek architect Chris Taylor has written to North Staffordshire CCG’s chief accountable officer highlighting his concerns.
He said: “They are saying that services can be delivered in care homes or at patients’ homes but they will not deliver the recovery like Leek Moorlands Hospital can.
The minor injury unit and 20 other services will continue despite the bed closures.
At an extraordinary meeting in September, members of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council voted unanimously to support a vote of no confidence in North Staffordshire CCG over its handling of the hospital.