Mental health inpatients from Perth and Kinross and Angus could be treated in a central ward in Dundee under plans being considered by NHS Tayside.
The health board is considering options for transforming its mental health provisions, most of which will involve the number of units being reduced from three to two.
However one option would see all general adult psychiatry (GAP) acute admission beds relocated to Carseview.
Currently beds are also provided in the Moredun ward at Murry Royal Hospital in Perth and the Mulberry ward in the Susan Carneigie Unit at Stracathro Hospital near Brechin.
The plans were outlined at a mental health provision information event for carers and professionals in Perth yesterday.
Associate medical director of the clinical improvement board at NHS Tayside, Dr Neil Prentice, said the aim was to try and treat more people in the community before they reach the point of needing hospital admission.
He said: “We already in the process of developing our crisis response treatment service as an alternative to admission. People who would previously have gone to hospital are now being managed with enhanced support and assistance at home.
“The difficulty for us is because we have a large part of our resources invested in beds – we would want to put more resources into that (a community service) to try and keep people at home.
“Nobody wants to be in hospital, so we should try and make that possible but we will still need beds for when it’s absolutely necessary. “
He also stressed the crisis assessment unit’s move from Perth to Dundee out of hours is a temporary measure and there are no plans to permanently relocate the service.
Other proposals include relocating just one of the Moredun and Mulberry wards, or retaining both as “step down” wards supporting a main unit at Carseview.
If Moredun was closed to mental health patients, then it could be given a new lease of life treating those with learning difficulties. There will be a consultation on the proposals later in the year.
Robert Packham, Chief officer for Perth and Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “There is an ongoing mental health service redesign transformation programme which is undertaking a review of adult mental health inpatient services and learning disability inpatient services across Tayside.
“This programme will continue to look at a long-term sustainable model of care for adult mental health inpatient services.
“The programme team is currently gathering the necessary clinical, workforce and financial information for each of the top four options in order to identify a preferred option.
“This will be presented to NHS Tayside and Health and Social Care Partnership Boards by March 2017 to seek agreement for a three-month period of wider stakeholder consultation on any preferred option.”
