The trust says that services will be improved

Health officials have defended proposals to reduce the number of hospital beds for those with mental illness in west Cumbria.

Hundreds of people met at the Civic Hall in Whitehaven on Thursday night to hear about possible changes to mental health care.

Managers want to see more care in the community, with people needing hospital treatment sent to the Carleton Clinic in Carlisle.

Nigel Woodcock, chief executive of the North Cumbria Primary Care Trusts, said the move would improve the quality of care patients receive.

He said: "It is about ensuring we are providing safe and effective services, that we are providing a better therapeutic environment than we are currently providing in some of our facilities.

'Travel stress'

"It is also about delivering an overall better quality environment, such as single-sex accommodation."

But Helen Stoker, who often needs hospital treatment for manic depression, said the move could have an adverse affect on patients and their families.

She said: "To have to travel to Carlisle for treatment, and for our families to have to travel to visit us, is going to cause a lot of stress for the patients and their relatives."

And the manager of charity Eden Mind, Lorraine Rockminster, said she feared mental health services in the area would be weakened by the move.