Dozens of placard-carrying campaigners took their health service protest to Totnes as they condemned health bosses’ latest round of consultations as another “sham”.
South Devon communities are still reeling over the decision to close community hospitals at Ashburton, Dartmouth, Bovey Tracey and Dartmouth, amid claims that local protests were completely ignored.
Now health bosses are looking at a new shake up in health services centred on the county’s four main hospitals at Torbay, Plymouth, Exeter and Barnstaple.
The first of a series of consultation meetings went ahead at Totnes Civic Hall on Tuesday last week, as NHS chiefs talked about their five-year plan for the region.
The campaigners, led by Buckfastleigh town councillor Andy Stokes, said they were boycotting the meeting because, they claimed, it was clear the public was not being listened to.
Mr Stokes said: “They 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 that they had ‘engaged’ with the public.”
He added: “Now, as part of the five-year programme of ongoing cuts and privatisation measures to the NHS – the so-called Sustainability and Transformation Plan – they are ‘consulting’ on the next round of attacks to undermine our health service, with public ‘reviews’ around Devon throughout March.”
He said there were concerns that health bosses are determined to drive through more than £300m of cuts across Devon over the next five years.
He said the previous consultation exercise had been a “sham” and expected the current one to be the same.
The South Devon and Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group said in January it was implementing the latest changes – which included the four community hospital closures – as it switched resources from hospital bed-based care to community-based care once the required resources for that change were in place.
This month it said the resources were there and began the process of closing the hospitals.
It also revealed there were proposals to cut beds at Torbay Hospital.
The new review is aimed at the area’s ‘acute’ health services involving Torbay Hospital, Derriford Hospital, the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital and Barnstaple Hospital.
Last week’s Totnes meeting was the first of three aimed at getting people’s views ahead of the launch of the proposals this summer.
The next meeting was due to go ahead at Newton Abbot yesterday and there will be one in Paignton on Friday.
Mr Stokes said the proposals would end up as a “range of hard choices played off against one another”. And he warned: “They were not listening before and they are not going to listen now.”
He said afterwards: “The rally finished with an open vote on the proposals to cut acute services.
“Unanimously and vocally, participants rejected any cuts in acute services for Torbay and South Devon.
“The meeting called on the organisers of the consultation process to register the real views of local people – that the NHS must be fully and properly funded as a public service, and must continue to be free to everyone who needs it.”
Article originally published by Totnes Times
