Calls to save community funded hospital wing

Seaton Community Hospital was part paid for with funds raised by the community

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

NHS Devon plans to hand back a two-storey wing to its property service after it said no viable schemes had come forward to take on the space which it said costs £300,000 a year to rent.

But a former Devon councillor has called a community meeting to prevent the hand back amid calls for the space, "previously funded by the community", to be turned into a care hub.

NHS Devon said it was yet to be presented with any financially viable plan for the space, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports.

'Risk of demolition'

Martin Shaw, a former independent Devon county councillor for the town, is organising the community meeting on Friday 3 November at Colyford Memorial Hall.

Campaigners are pushing for the wing of Seaton & District Hospital to be repurposed as a care hub, which would include support for patients with dementia, as well as palliative care and bereavement support.

Earlier in October Richard Foord, Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Honiton, raised the issue at prime minister’s questions in parliament and has written to Health Secretary Steve Barclay to request an urgent meeting.

The hospital was built with 50% of its funding raised by the local community, Mr Shaw said, adding 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).

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

A spokesperson for NHS Devon said the site costs about £300,000 a year in rent and other charges and it was a "poor use of taxpayers' money" amid a £40m budget deficit.

They added that "no viable schemes have been received" to take on the space and as a result it started the process of handing the ward space back to NHS Property Services.

“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.”