Opponents of the closure of four South Devon community hospitals have not given up their protest campaign. They are staging their own alternative review of local services in Totnes’s Civic Square tomorrow evening (Tuesday, March 14) to clash with a similar gathering of health chiefs at the town’s Civic Hall.
Last week health chiefs confirmed the formal closure of Teignbridge’s doomed community hospitals in Ashburton and Bovey Tracey. A ‘no more patients’ ban was imposed at Ashburton last Wednesday while Bovey Tracey’s facility has been closed temporarily since December 2015.
South Devon and Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) says it is satisfied new services are in place to support more people at home and reduce unnecessary hospital admissions. It means that Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust can close all four South Devon hospitals in its line of fire. The other two are at Paignton and Dartmouth.
Buckfastleigh town councillor and anti-closure campaigner Andy Stokes said: ‘CCG didn’t listen when we turned out in force to the consultation and told them we wanted our community hospitals to stay open. They just counted the numbers of people who turned out and used them as evidence they had engaged the public.’
He added: ‘Now, as part of the five-year programme of ongoing cuts and privatisation measures to the NHS, they are consulting on the next round of attacks to undermine our health service with public reviews around Devon throughout the month.’
He denounced such gatherings as ‘fake reviews,’ calling on people to boycott the 6.30pm meeting in Totnes and instead take part in ‘a real community consultation’ outside.
‘It’s a chance for people to come and say what they actually think about the cuts and dismantling of our NHS,’ he said. He urged people to wear red and bring placards proclaiming their opposition to the cutbacks. They are due to meet in the square at 6pm.
In the wake of the closures, Ashburton will have a temporary health and wellbeing centre established on the site of the Ashburton and Buckfastleigh hospital while a ‘full options appraisal’ is undertaken for a permanent centre.
Community clinics from Bovey Tracey Hospital will be moved to a permanent health and wellbeing centre on the site of Riverside and Tower House surgeries. Changes will take effect in the ‘coming weeks’, says the CCG.
A spokesman said: ‘Implementation will be overseen by the CCG’s Community Services Transformation Group and supported by implementation groups in each town, which will include representative stakeholders so that local knowledge will influence service development.’
And he added: ‘In the consultation documentation and in the public meeting presentations, we indicated that with the strengthening of community-based services the 32 escalation beds opened at Torbay Hospital in recent years would no longer be needed.
‘The CCG has been working with the Trust to identify how these beds can best be phased out to achieve the best patient-flow through the hospital.
‘As a result, the Trust has decided to close 14 beds in McCallum ward on April 1, relocating the breast and gynaecology service – which is partially located in that ward – elsewhere within the hospital.’
He stressed: ‘As changes are implemented, the focus will be on ensuring minimum disruption to patients and that patient safety remains paramount.’
Article originally published by Mid-Devon Advertiser
