A HOSPITAL for people with severe learning disabilities is set to close in a move that health bosses say will allow the inpatients to become "real citizens".

North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) is hoping to win a £1.5 million grant from the Government to help them relocate inpatients of Easingwold Long Stay Campus for People with Learning Disabilities.

The service is expected to close at the end of 2009, by which time all 15 inpatients will have been discharged into the community.

Anne Bygrave, head of learning disabilities at the PCT, said: "This is a really positive move that will enable the patients to gain more independence and become real citizens, rather than hospital in-patients who might be forgotten about.

  • See today's The Press for further details.