A Midlands daily newspaper has published a hard-hitting page one comment calling on health chiefs to save a closure-threatened inpatient psychiatric unit in Staffordshire.

The Burton Mail’s splash, headlined ‘Time To Listen’ and overlaid on a background of hundreds of petition forms, was handed to campaigners attending a public consultation meeting about the Margaret Stanhope Centre’s future.

The centre provides 24-hour in-patient care and treatment for people who are in an acute state of mental illness

The paper launched its Save Our Stanhope campaign in October after health bosses in Staffordshire launched a consultation on mental health beds in which they said the preferred option would be to axe the unit.

Mail editor Kevin Booth said: “It was deliberately timed to coincide with the crucial consultation meeting and would have left health officials in no doubt about the weight of public opinion against the proposals.

“Our campaign has struck such a chord with readers that I felt it was only right to use it to reflect their views.”

The Burton Mail's message to health bosses

The campaign has now been backed by 7,300 people who have signed the Mail’s petition.

South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust and South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have put the proposals down to a reduced need for inpatient beds.

But the Mail insists the unit must stay open to serve patients for whom care in the community ‘is not only unsuitable but could be dangerous’.

Copies of the paper were given out at a public meeting

It also says patients should be treated as near to their own homes and families as possible, arguing this has a real impact on their welfare.

The campaign has won the support of high-profile backers such as Dame Marjorie Wallace, the founder and chief executive of mental health charity Sane, boxing legend Frank Bruno and the Conservative and Labour parties, including the town’s Tory MP, Andrew Griffiths.