PLANS to close the physical rehabilitation unit at Skipton Hospital will be presented to the public by the end of this month.

Craven, Harrogate and Rural District Primary Care Trust (CHARD) agreed on Tuesday to push through the document in order to go out to consultation as soon as possible.

The proposal to close down the unit and transfer the services to a new stroke unit at Airedale General Hospital, which is due to open in September, has been met with concern and protest from members of the public, including staff and users.

At least two demonstrations have been held against the plans and several letters expressing opposition to the plans have been received by the Herald.

Last week Airedale Community Health Council (CHC) called for an immediate consultation on the plans, before the new stroke unit opened.

The PCT had originally planned to consult as part of a wider canvassing of opinion on the future of health services in the Craven District, to be held in October.

Chris Turner, non-executive director of the PCT, told Tuesday's meeting: "My own view is I do believe consultation would have been better regarding the physical rehabilitation unit as an integrated part of the service as a whole.

"It is regrettable that we didn't have a guarantee from Airedale NHS Trust that it wouldn't have acted before that consultation took place."

He added that he was concerned that consulting on the PRU separately from the whole range of health care provided at Skipton General Hospital could jeopardise other services such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

Concern was expressed by non-executive director Victoria Lunn that members of the public could become confused by having two consultations which would overlap, and that people would also become "consultation apathetic".

John Godward, chief officer of Airedale CHC added: "I am concerned that Airedale Trust believes that it can have consultations when it wants or decides to dispose of them altogether whereas the law is quite clear.

"There must be a 13 week consultation on any change of variation in services."