Plans to close a High Wycombe medical centre for adults with learning difficulties and move the service to Hampshire has been delayed.

The Ridgeway Centre in Cressex was set to close today as part of a transfer of services out of Buckinghamshire, but health bosses have had to put the move back as they make arrangements for some of their last remaining patients.

Run by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust the inpatient service at The Ridgeway Centre currently provides single-sex accommodation for more than 16 people, as well as assessment and treatment services.

As part of a reorganisation of specialist health learning disability services, the trust is in the process of closing the centre, with inpatient beds for people in Buckinghamshire set to be provided in Kingfisher Court, Radlett, instead.

Donna Shell, strategic lead for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Learning Disability Services, said: “The decision to close the Ridgeway Centre was reached after communications with the people who use our services, their carers, our staff, statutory bodies and other local groups – and it has been made in light of the wider planned changes to learning disability services across Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.”

It is not yet clear when the service will be shut, but the Bucks Free Press understands arrangements for the last few patients is hoped to be finalised by mid-September.

The move is part of a bigger hospital shake-up, which sees services provided by Southern Health in Buckinghamshire transferred to Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Ms Shell added: “Community services will still be provided in the same way and most of the existing staff previously employed by Southern Health will transfer across to the new provider.”