A FLAGSHIP dementia facility is facing an uncertain future just six years after it was opened to meet demand from the community's elderly population.

Health bosses will meet next month to decide the fate of the state-of-the-art Atholl Unit in Pitlochry, which was mothballed in December last year when NHS Tayside placed it in a "non-operational holding position".

The health board insisted at the time that the move was temporary but there are fears the unit will now be closed altogether.

The seven-bed specialist centre is part of the £7 million Pitlochry Community hospital development opened by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in August 2008. Its catchment area covers Highland Perthshire, a region of comparatively elderly people. The number of pensioners in Pitlochry alone is around twice the national average, leading to high demand for dementia services.

However, doctors were told in summer 2013 to cease admitting new patients and by Christmas, it was empty. Andrew Holmes, chair of the Pitlochry and Moulin community council, said residents have been left in the dark by health chiefs. He said: "There's been a wall of silence. We've heard nothing from the health board. It's ridiculous to spend all that money building this lovely facility, and already it's not being used. Yet there's great demand for it.

"Why has a building that's barely six years old been standing empty for nine months? There's been no communication. We're aware of what's happened, but not the rationale behind it."

It is understood that the shutdown was motivated by pressure on the health board to cut costs. Dementia patients who are too ill to be looked after at home are being treated at the Murray Royal in Perth or at care homes such as Luncarty House, some 30 miles from Pitlochry.

Isobel Wilson, a former volunteer at the hospital whose husband has Alzheimer's disease, said residents now faced lengthy round-trips to visit loved-ones. She said: "For people over 80 without their own transport, it's dreadful. It's six buses there and back. And people want to visit their relatives every day. My husband has dementia. I was thinking 'my husband is going to need [the Atholl Unit] eventually, and it's not going to be there'.

"They're dualling the A9 at the moment and there's been about three public consultations on that. But this is a hospital, and there's been no public consultation whatsoever. Everything's been done on the quiet."

A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said they would organise "a series of community events" over the coming weeks to allow local people to share their views.

Maggie Rapley, service manager for Mental Health Services for Older People at Perth and Kinross Community Health Partnership, said staff at the Atholl Unit had been delivering dementia care services for older people living at home. She said: "We are currently evaluating the success of these new ways of working and a report will be submitted to NHS Tayside Directors next month."