A HEALTH board report is recommending the dementia ward at Chepstow Community Hospital be closed "at the earliest opportunity".

Board members will next week be asked to recommend that plans are put in place immediately, "to manage the closure sensitively and safely in conjunction with all stakeholders", given concerns over inpatient service sustainability beyond mid-April.

If approval is granted, closure of St Pierre Ward could be completed by mid-June, based on a timetable for completing staff redeployment.

The recommendation - board members will consider it next Wednesday as part of proposals for older adult mental health services - has sparked dismay and anger.

Opposition was voiced across Monmouthshire during a consultation process, but this has failed to dissuade service chiefs.

Difficulties in recruiting enough nurses into older adult mental health inpatient units have persisted, and it is now feared that safety and sustainability may be compromised.

If approved, St Pierre Ward patients will be treated in future at units at Ysbyty Tri Chwm in Ebbw Vale, or St Woolos Hospital, Newport.

County councillor Paul Pavia, who represents Chepstow's Larkfield ward, is disappointed by the recommendation but not surprised, believing the consultation process was "a sham".

"It seems to me that the health board is merely trying to hide behind the fig leaf of clinical safety to mask its own internal deficiencies, particularly around workforce planning, recruitment and retention, and a lack of strategic foresight," he said.

The health board report acknowledges there will be transport issues for people needing to visit other units.

It suggests enhanced community services will minimise the numbers involved, and stresses that transport schemes are being explored.

But it acknowledges there are no short term solutions to concerns over car parking at St Woolos Hospital.

Councillor Pavia said the health board has no idea how to resolve parking and transport problems and is "trying to pass the buck to Monmouthshire County Council to find the solutions - but that just won't wash".

He called on board members to reject the recommendation, giving weight to objections, and to "principles outlined in the recent Parliamentary Review of Health and Social Care around collaboration with local government and seamless integrated care in the community".