THE members of a group representing mental health patients and their carers said this week they had been "betrayed" by plans to close Ward 4.

The South Cumbria Mental Health User and Carer Forum said that the closure of the ward at Kendal's Westmorland General Hospital had previously been referred to as "temporary", but now members believed it was being proposed as a permanent move.

In a statement released this week, the forum said that: "For friends and relatives of patients in the rural parts of South Lakeland it will be very difficult and expensive for them to keep in contact with their loved ones.

"The South Cumbria Mental Health User and Carer Forum will campaign vigorously for an immediate hold on the closing of Ward 4."

The group said that because Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust, which is proposing the closure, was likely to be dismantled next year, it would be wrong for it to, "destroy the in-patient ward which was fought for at the time of the building of Westmorland General Hospital".

Members of the forum also said they were "very disappointed" that other, separate plans for improving mental health in-patient services across Morecambe Bay had been "kicked into the long grass" this week.

The plans, to improve mental health in-patient wards in Kendal, Lancaster and Barrow, were agreed last year, but this week the PCT said that it did not have any money to make additional investment in mental health.

However, the PCT's trust board was told this week that the plans had not "been kicked into the long grass" because although it could not currently act on the proposals, it was trying to ensure that funding could be made available in the longer term.

PCT chief executive Leigh Griffin said everyone on the board would like to be able to invest in improvements.