Plans to close a mental health centre should be halted, says Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield.

Earlier this month the Gazette revealed the Kent and Medway Partnership Trust (KMPT) is finalising proposals to transfer community mental health services from Laurel House, in Old Dover Road, to St Martin's Hospital.

Ms Duffield says she shares concerns of campaigners who fear relocating psychiatrists, community nurses, occupational therapists and other specialists to St Martin's would be detrimental to patients.

St Martin's cares for ill patients who have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act or voluntarily admitted to an acute ward.

Although the NHS trust says the move will benefit those "who have contact with a range of our services", it has led to fears that patients who have been hospitalised at St Martin's would find it "traumatic" to return to the site in Littlebourne Road.

Ms Duffield said: "A return to St Martin's could be very difficult and traumatic for some of the patients and they or their representatives should have been consulted first.

"These plans should at the very least be put on hold until the residents have had their say.

"This looks like another cost-cutting exercise at a time when mental health services in this constituency are under severe pressure."

Clive Wanstall, chair of the East Kent Carer's Council, is also calling for patients, their carers and frontline staff to be given a say on where services are relocated.

"We are against any of the facilities that are in Laurel House being moved up to the St Martin's site," he said.

"The reason for that is when you have been discharged from an acute hospital and you're back in the community, and you're trying to recover and build a life for yourself again, the last thing you want to be reminded of is hospital.

"We think community treatment services and hospitals should really be separate.

"The other thing is there's going to be real problems with access and parking up there. It's not the easiest of places to get to.

"Some people who use Laurel House come in from the villages or Herne Bay, and they would have to come into Canterbury by bus and change, which is just not very patient friendly.

"There's quite a lot of people saying look, this is the wrong place to do it. These plans are all about saving money. They call it economies of scale, but it brings such problems."

Although Laurel House is on a list of NHS properties earmarked for 'disposal', KMPT says it has not yet been sold.

The trust says the building is "rapidly becoming no longer fit for purpose" and that it is limited in the improvements that can be made due to its age.

A spokesman said: "We have a number of ways that patients and carers are able to share their views with the trust including consultative committees, carer and patient surveys, online via our website, directly to members of staff, as well as through our complaints and compliments route."

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