Teignmouth Hospital planned closure could face second review

The community hospital on Mill Lane was built by the NHS in 1954

Another review into the planned closure of a community hospital in Devon is a step closer.

Teignmouth Hospital, the first to be built by the NHS, is due to close, with services moving to a new £8m health centre in the town and to Dawlish Hospital

The closure of the hospital in Mill Lane, opened in 1954, is part of a NHS plan to modernise services in the area.

Devon's health scrutiny committee is to investigate the possible impacts,

It will then decide whether to refer the proposals back to the health secretary for a second time, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

It did so in 2021, unhappy with a lack of consultation over the hospital's future, but then health secretary Sajid Javid asked for a review by a panel of independent experts, who decided the NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) consultation had been "adequate,"

However, the panel identified "lessons to be learned for both parties," adding the NHS must engage with the community to "determine the future" of the hospital.

The hospital is is due to close, with services moving to Dawlish Hospital and a new £8m health centre in Teignmouth

A campaign to save it has continued, and Teignbridge District Council last month agreed to write to current health secretary Steve Barclay to review the closure again.

Councillors claim there is much more pressure on the health system since the original decision, made pre-pandemic, while the League of Friends of Teignmouth Hospital has pledged £1m to refurbish it as a recovery hospital.

The NHS said its plan was supported by more than 60% of respondents to a 2020 consultation.

But at the county council scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, several speakers and councillors urged another government review.

Local resident Vivian Wilson said: "It's 21 years since the closure of one of the two wards at Teignmouth Hospital. It is six years since the other one was closed. The loss of those two wards is now a primary cause of bed-blocking at Torbay.

"Prior to that, Teignmouth Hospital was the perfect pit-stop for patients between Torbay Hospital and home."

Ms Wilson mentioned specific cases of "poor aftercare" as a result, later adding: "This is why we've been fighting to save Teignmouth Hospital - a valued outpost to Torbay since 1954 and it should be again."

Afterwards, a spokesperson for the NHS in Devon said: "The way we provide care in the Teignmouth and Dawlish area is very successful and receives very positive feedback from patients and carers.

"Our model of providing care gives us more capacity than a rehabilitation ward would - when we consulted with local people in 2020, we estimated that we could treat four times as many people in their own homes as we could in a rehabilitation ward in Teignmouth Hospital with the same investment."