A TASK force is set to monitor the actions of an NHS trust following the closure of a cottage hospital's only ward.

North Yorkshire County Council's deputy leader Councillor Gareth Dadd said he hoped the working group would include prominent members of Thirsk, Sowerby and Hambleton councils, as well as the Lambert Memorial Hospital's league of friends.

The move follows South Tees Hospitals Trust announcing earlier this month that the 14-bed ward at the Thirsk infirmary which provides end of life care for patients, general rehabilitation, diagnostics and drug administration, would remain closed until January.

The trust, which has previously been accused of concentrating its resources at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough and closing services in Northallerton, has stated it had been unable to find a sufficient number of nurses to make the ward safe.

A meeting of Thirsk Town Council heard the trust's chief executive Professor Tricia Hart had declined a request to detail long-term plans for the hospital at a public meeting in the town.

In a letter to Cllr Dadd she wrote: "I believe the reasons behind the temporary closure were fully explained at a county council committee meeting which was open to the public and minuted."

She said the trust shared the disappointment of the people of Thirsk about the closure, but could not give a firm date about when it would reopen.

Prof Hart added that she was hopeful that the trust would be able to employ more staff after January, when the next cohort of nurses graduate from university.

She added if the hospital remained closed after that, a public meeting would be called to review the situation.

Cllr Dadd said: "In making the request, I thought perhaps she might like to defend that there are 3,500 clinical nurses in her NHS trust and yet half a dozen can't be spared to keep the hospital open.

"The situation wreaks of failure and I find it shameful and think we are being taken for fools.

"This hospital is not just bricks and mortar, it's the beating heart of our community.

"As I've seen removal vans returning to the hospital this week, I don't think I've felt as angry about anything since I was elected ten years ago."