CRAVEN residents will be asked if they want a new purpose-built medical centre on the site of the 72-year-old Skipton General Hospital.

More than a year after Airedale NHS Trust announced it wanted to close Skipton General because it was costing too much money, the organisation which controls the purse strings has published its response.

Craven Harrogate and Rural District (Chard) Primary Care Trust has completed a model for the provision of community health and social care services in Craven.

It has outlined three options for Skipton Hospital which the public will be asked to decide upon.

Option one is to maintain the existing arrangements.

Option two is to close the hospital and provide the services currently in Skipton at other sites.

Option three is to knock down the existing buildings and build a new health centre providing a wide range of local health care services.

A health official said realistically only option three would satisfy Craven people.

Maintaining the status quo (option one) would be expensive, inefficient and would mean an old, dilapidated and unsuitable building would stagger on for the foreseeable future.

Option two would be widely unpopular as there are no suitable buildings available and would mean patients are forced to travel to Airedale.

However, option three would provide Skipton with a modern facility and also enable the PCT to deliver services.

The options are the conclusion of an exercise called Working With Local Communities Initiative (WWLCI) undertaken by Chard PCT.

A document is due to be circulated in the next few days setting out the PCT's vision and local groups and individuals will be encouraged to comment.

How the new building would be funded has yet to be explored, but it seems certain parts of the land would be sold to raise finance.

The document setting out the future for Craven health care is in draft form, but envisages a GP practice (almost certainly Dyneley House) moving to the hospital site. It would share the building with social services and a wide range of health provision.

The draft states that nurses, a pharmacy, a communal dentist, social care rehabilitation and some outpatient clinics could also be accommodated on the site.

There would even be a nurse-led minor injury service for local people so that the accident and emergency departments at Airedale, Bradford and Lancaster hospitals could concentrate resources on people who needed more specialist care.

"The second practice in Skipton would remain in its modern, purpose-built premises," said the draft. "Patients in Skipton would therefore continue to have a choice of practice, each providing a range of services including chronic disease management."

At a meeting of the Chard PCT board this week, accountant Bernard Chalk warned that financial pressures would determine the future of Skipton Hospital and voiced concerns that local expectations could be raised to a level which the PCT could not meet.

Chard PCT's Working With Local Communities Initiative document also looks at health care in Settle.

In the same way that the public will be consulted about knocking down Skipton General Hospital and rebuilding a new health centre, the PCT is to ask North Craven folk what they want to see happen in Settle.

Again one option is to retain the status quo.

But the second option would be to move Townhead GPs and Settle Health Centre to Castleberg for a "one stop shop".

It would "co-locate a range of primary, community and intermediate care services on one site.

"These would include the services currently provided at Castleberg, Settle Health Centre and the GP practices".

A dentist and pharmacist could also work on the site and there would be facilities for optometrists as well to provide services for patients with diabetes and other problems such as low vision or following cataract surgery.

There would also be facilities for minor injury, and out of hours services.

Again, the options are at an early stage and are dependent on finances.

The draft emphasises that "further work has to be done on potential advantages and possible consequences of each of the options, together with the financial consequences."

The Castleberg site and Settle Health Centre are due to be transferred from Airedale Hospital ownership to Chard PCT in April 2004.

Just as in the Skipton Hospital options, the documents will be released to the public in the next few days and consultation will be completed by a provisional date of March 19.