Hospital beds could be axed as part of plans to shake-up mental health services for elderly people.

The proposals, which would save around £1.3 million, involve closing units at Midhurst and Bognor and having all in-patient services based in one place at Chichester.

The overall number of beds would be cut from 78 to 42.

More facilities would then be provided in the community to shift the focus to caring for people in their own homes instead of hospital.

The money saved would be used to ease financial pressures as well as pay for the extra staffing needed on the inpatient ward at the Harold Kidd unit in Chichester.

Around £600,000 would go on establishing community based mental health services in the Western Sussex Primary Care Trust (PCT) area.

A public consultation has been launched by the PCT and the West Sussex Health and Social Care NHS Trust and will end on May 5.

PCT chief executive Claire Holloway said: "We plan to refocus our resources to increase and modernise the range of services provided in the community, shifting care away from hospital to home.

"This will enable faster access to day care, crisis resolution and home treatment. We now want to hear the views of local people about the future shape of these services."

The number of older people and therefore the number of older people with mental health problems is growing but improvements in drug treatment for dementia have meant that more people diagnosed with the condition can be helped to stay well longer.

The consultation document sets out proposals that involve expanding the community mental health services across the area in a major two-year investment programme.

Eight in-patient beds at the Pearson unit in Midhurst will close along with 27 at the Richard Hotham Unit at Bognor Regis War Memorial Hospital.

The social care NHS trust's service manager David Howell said: "We are keen to make sure that we avoid sending people to hospital wherever we can.

"At the moment we have hospital units in all three places and there are simply too many beds we are not using.

"We think we can provide better care for people by concentrating our hospital service at the Harold Kidd unit.

"We have made a promise to develop the quality and variety of our services for older people with mental health problems and I can assure people that the care currently provided for their relatives will continue."

Executive director Neil Perkins said: "This is an exciting opportunity to develop more community-based services for older people. We are very keen to provide services which care for people closer to their own homes and these proposals are entirely in line with all the other modernisation programmes that we have been keen to deliver on during the last few years."

Public meetings on the proposals are being held at Chichester medical education centre on March 8 at 6pm, The Grange at Midhurst on March 16 at 2.30pm and the Royal Norfolk Hotel in Bognor on March 24 at 2.30pm.

The consultation document is available by visiting www.westernsussex.nhs.uk or by calling the PCT on 01243 770770 or 01243 815291.