Beds at two community hospital wards in Somerset have been cut for the winter from today due to a shortage of nurses.
Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust says plans will go ahead to temporarily move 24 beds from Shepton Mallet and Chard Community hospital wards to other locations.
The trust say they do not envisage the wards reopening until March.
Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust had announced plans to close a number of beds. Credit: ITV West Country
The Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust say the closure of 10 beds in Shepton Mallet Community Hospital and 14 in Chard, is due to a shortage in registered nurses in the county.
The announcement has been met with frustration from local residents, with an online petition protesting the plans gaining thousands of signatures.
