Residents urged to help save a wing of community hospital

Campaigners have organised a community meeting next month

Residents in Seaton are being urged to help save a wing of their community hospital.

Martin Shaw, a former independent Devon county councillor for the town, is organising a community meeting on Friday 3 November at Colyford Memorial Hall to generate support for efforts to prevent a wing of Seaton & District Hospital being demolished.

Campaigners are pushing for the two-storey wing at the hospital to be repurposed as a care hub, which would include support for patients with dementia, as well as palliative care and bereavement support.

MP Richard Foord (Lib Dem, Tiverton & Honiton) raised the issue at prime minister’s questions in parliament earlier this month, and has written to health secretary Steve Barclay to request an urgent meeting.

Now Mr Shaw has invited the MP to a meeting along with East Devon leader Paul Arnott (Lib Dem, Coly Valley) and other key parties to discuss the future of the wing.

The hospital was built with 50 per cent of its funding raised by the local community, Mr Shaw said, adding that the wing at risk of demolition was entirely funded by fundraising.

Mr Shaw said the hospital was handed to NHS Property Services, a government-owned company, in 2016, and rented back to the Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB).

He said residents feel strongly about the hospital, and have previously expressed their views with a 400-strong protest at Devon County Council’s headquarters in 2017, where they demonstrated against the proposed closure of hospital beds.

“The bed closures were meant to lead to full closure of Seaton, and maybe another local hospital, but in the end the government did an about-turn under pressure from threatened local Tory MPs, and they were saved,” Mr Shaw said.

“But Seaton was left to benign neglect by the Royal Devon & Exeter Trust, which runs it, with fewer services than any other hospital.”

Seaton Area Health Matters, a local organisation, has submitted a proposal to create a Community Interest Company to take the wing over as a health hub, but Mr Shaw said this plan has fallen because of the “ridiculous prices” that NHS Property Services charges in rent.

This high level of rent has prompted the Devon ICB to consider handing the building back to NHS Property Services, which could then choose to demolish the wing.

A spokesperson for NHS Devon said the site costs about £300,000 a year in rent and other charges.

“This is poor use of taxpayers’ money at a time when we are forecasting another budget deficit of more than £40 million this year,” the spokesperson said.

“In recent months, we have been talking to local health, care and community partners to see if they are interested and financially able to take on the space, but no viable schemes have been received and we started the process of handing the ward space back to NHS Property Services (NHSPS) so we can save the money that is currently being wasted on it.

“We have always been very happy to talk to prospective occupants of the space if they have a financially viable scheme to take it on – and we remain so.”

Residents who want their say are invited to the meeting at 1:30pm on Friday 3 November at Colyford Memorial Hall.