FURIOUS councillors believe they are being misled about the status of mental health provision in Harwich.

Fears had arisen about the future of All Saints House, in Main Road, Dovercourt, after some patients were told their regular appointments were being moved to Clacton and Colchester.

The North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust moved to quash rumours the facility would shut down, but Harwich Town Council wrote to the trust specifically to see if any services at all would be moved.

In a reply to the council, chief executive Andrew Geldard said: “Following a period of both staff, public and stakeholder consultation, we, as a trust, have restructured our clinical services in line with our commissioning arrangements.

“Whilst we no longer have locality based community mental health teams, we do have specialist community mental health teams who deliver services based on clinical need rather than geography.

“This provides a much more focused approach to care.

“We have streamlined access into services through a single team who also provide shortterm interventions.

“We still haveawhole range of services being delivered from All Saints House, including adults, older adults and children, but we don’t have a single team based there.”

Town councillor Garry Calver said the trust had avoided the council’s specific question.

He said: “That is a lot of words to say very little.

“When we debated this situation, we requested that the clerk wrote to him with a very precise question and we asked specifically were any of the services being offered previously in All Saints House no longer available.

“There are a lot of words, but that is not addressed.

“I think we have to begin to believe we are being misled.

They are simply failing to respond to that specific point.”