Plans to close down a Warwick mental health hospital for older women have been met with fury by councillors.

Woodloes House, Woodloes Avenue South, Warwick, has 15 beds for female mental health patients aged 65 or over but NHS bosses are seeking to cut demand through a new 'Hospital at Home' team that will focus on earlier intervention and recovery in familiar settings.

Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust (CWPT), the body that handles mental health and dementia services for the region, insists the beds will only go once it has been demonstrated that the new plan is working.

If implemented, 12 of the 15 lost beds would be distributed across other sites in Warwick and Nuneaton, albeit with other cohorts also seeing beds reduced.

The overall volume of male and female beds for mental health and dementia across the county would go down by a quarter from the 60 available now to 45.

However, CWPT insists that similar schemes elsewhere have improved the equity and quality of service and will benefit south Warwickshire women with dementia who currently have to be admitted to hospital in the north of the county to access services that could now come to their doorsteps.

Chief operating officer Julie Frake-Harris told Warwickshire's adult social care and health overview and scrutiny committee – a panel of elected officials from county, district and borough councils that oversees work in relevant areas: "I would like to be absolutely clear that no in-patient beds will close unless we are absolutely clear that the new model, our hospital at home team, is able to meet the needs of those patients who are able to stay in their communities at home."

Associate medical director and mental health expert Dr Rinki Banerjee went on to advocate the shift of provision from Woodloes to the Ferndale ward at St Michael's Hospital, Warwick.

Ferndale currently caters for older men and she argued that the "absence of co-location" of wider health services "can cause some challenges" at Woodloes with the wider support for different conditions – physical and mental – leading to earlier discharges for men.

Details of the seven-day-a-week Hospital at Home operation with doctors, consultants and non-medical staff like specialist nurses, NHS social workers and occupational therapists were then shared. 

Most patients will get two weeks of hospital at home followed by a "smooth transition" to longer-term care as necessary, including in-patient care if warranted. It was said that a pilot in Worcestershire showed improved outcomes.

Chief medical officer Dr Richard Onyon: "The focus of this change is about improving care and experience for patients, not reducing the beds, and that we build on the strength of the specialist and compassionate care provided by our staff."

CWPT has since confirmed that £1.2 million will be invested in the model with a total of 10 professional roles included in 23 overall posts overall but elected officials were not convinced. 

Cllr John Holland said: "A number of things are not clear.

"I had an email some weeks ago announcing this as a decision. It was very clear that this wasn't a consultation, it was a decision.

"In discussions with the local community I have been told that an alternative use for Woodloes House is already informally agreed.

"If the Equality Impact Assessment is not complete then it cannot be a decision. A lot of questions need answering."

He added that he had come across residents that he knew "could not be accommodated by hospital at home".

"It does depend on what hospital at home really is. It seems that the way this has been done has created alarm that might not have been needed," he concluded. 

Ms Frake-Harris apologised "for the confusion" and said: "There is no prearranged deal around Woodloes. Our colleague is absolutely right, we are not in that position."

However, Cllr Kate Rolfe backed up Cllr Holland, stating that "anecdotally, the Woodloes building has been earmarked for something else" and that it was a "financial reason for closing".

She questioned how a reduction in need could be sustained given new housing growth projected across Warwickshire, fearing more patients "presenting in crisis at accident and emergency more often".

"I can't endorse this," she said.

"You talk about feedback but from my point of view it is far too late, asking after the event. 

"The consultation has not been done at all. I would like to have seen feedback done before, it just feels – for me and for people I have spoken to – as fait accompli. I don't feel comfortable."

Chris Bain, chief executive of patient advocacy group Healthwatch, said data showed three concerns – how people would be able to access hospital at home, the consistency of who conducts home visits and what happens after discharge.

He asked CWPT to consider how robust the ability to enter the system in the first place was, which Ms Frake-Harris agreed to.

Panel chair Cllr Jo Barker was the only one to endorse the proposal, recognising its alignment with the wider NHS plan to conduct more care in people's homes.

"Some members are wobbly about it and I can understand that," she said.

"Everyone has become so used to the same sort of bureaucratic consultation. Obviously it is not something that I am very keen on."

Despite seeing the plan voted down, the NHS remains free to continue with hospital at home.

A spokesperson said CWPT was committed to continued engagement with the scrutiny process and following statutory guidance and advice but stopped short of confirming whether any future unit closure decision would go through councillors. They were also unable to put timescales on when any closure could happen.