A £3.66M mental health unit for older people could be built on the West Park site in Darlington.
It would be located alongside an already agreed £20m, 85-bed acute mental hospital, which will replace the Pierremont unit at the Memorial Hospital.
The outline business case was presented yesterday to County Durham and Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust.
The report said there was a clear need to think again about services in the 18-bed Beaumont ward and at the 12-place Faverdale day hospital on the Memorial Hospital site.
In addition, further work was being done to identify a model of care for both Darlington and Teesdale, based on a community-led service.
The new unit would provide six beds and 13 day hospital places.
It would take an extra £704,524 to run the unit. It was hoped Darlington Primary Care Trust would foot the bill for £573,156 and the Dales PCT would take on the rest
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