NORWICH - Fox Hospital’s announcement earlier this month that it would cease providing psychiatric services by July 1 has put officials of Chenango County Mental Hygiene Services into a tailspin.

The department has been able to rely on the Oneonta-based hospital’s 28 available beds and after-hours crisis intervention center for the past 17 years. Director Mary Ann Spryn said the department receives approximately 400 crisis calls a month, and has regularly occupied up to four of Fox’s available beds.

Mental health patients in Chenango, Otsego, Delaware and Schoharie counties will be affected by the closure. All four counties have been in discussion with the New York State Office of Mental Health, Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, United Health Services of Binghamton and another unnamed Broome County facility. Spyrn said OMH has requested Fox remain open through September.

UHS has declined to service the areas. No other concrete decisions have been made. Bassett Hospital, located an hour from Norwich, has 20 adult beds in its psychiatric unit and no adolescent beds.

“The state is trying to keep them in operation until September because we need to discover our options for the future,” Spyrn said. Fox Hospital announcements have said the units were closing because of financial and staffing problems. Syprn said the hospital has been unable to staff enough psychiatrists to run the unit, and contracting with independent doctors has been cost-prohibitive.