Month: October 2023
Chair of NHS board who wants to close part of our hospital ‘went into politics to oppose community hospital closure’
Dr Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) which is closing part of Seaton Hospital, is the former Conservative MP for Totnes who lost her seat after switching to the Lib Dems in 2019.
According to Wikipedia, she was ‘ spurred into politics by her opposition to the threatened closure of Moretonhampstead Community Hospital in 2006’.
The hospital is still open today: The Mid-Devon Advertiser (27 July 2006) reported:
‘Friends of the hospital, who raised £500,000 for its refurbishment in the 1990s, promised the trust ‘one hell of a fight’ if [the hospital was closed]. But now the trust has recognised the benefits brought about by new arrangements in which hospital staff and GPs work more closely together.
The hospital has also started to offer services such as blood transfusions which were previously only available at Exeter’s RD & E Hospital. None of the community hospital’s nine beds have been closed as they are proving cheaper than acute beds in general hospital and trust spokesman, Nick Pearson, said the future was looking bright.
“Offering more services locally is of benefit to local people and it’s also good for the local NHS economy as it provides better value,” he said.
Surely there is a lesson for the ICB here – look again at referring the Seaton wing to Property Services, bring in more services locally, and turn the hospital into a community health hub – or reopen the ward for aftercare and pandemic preparedness.
Thanks to Cllr John Heath for initial research.
The NHS must end its neglect of Seaton: my reply to the ICB’s report on the hospital
I have sent the following reply to the ICB over its report (which I reproduced in my last post). This reply has gone to our MP and I am sending it to the press.
Thank you for sharing the report, which I am making available locally. I cannot understand, however, why it was not published together with the Board’s minutes and that it has taken pressure from me and possibly others to produce it.
I appreciate that you are consulting with partner organisations but it is wholly unacceptable that you have still not outlined any plan to communicate this decision to, or consult with, the local community in Seaton, Colyton, Beer, Branscombe, Axmouth and surrounding areas which depend on this hospital, who contributed half of its original cost in the 1980s, and have helped to fund it ever since – overall donating some £5 million at current prices.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the constant turnover of NHS organisations and leaders since 2017, the report provides a very incomplete and distorted account of the background. It states that the beds were removed ‘following full public consultation’ and notes the numbers of consultation events, responses to surveys and letters from the public. It fails however to mention that the consultation events in Seaton showed overwhelming opposition to the proposals; that the opposition to the closure of the beds in Seaton was greater than to any other closures; and that the local MP, town council and councillors of all parties were adamantly opposed.
The report also fails to mention that the CCG originally originally proposed to keep the beds in Seaton, the furthest of all the affected towns from an acute hospital, changing its mind at the last minute in March 2017 and switching the retained beds to Sidmouth. No plausible rationale was presented for this switch, so that the decision was widely perceived as a political fix because Sidmouth, unlike Seaton, was then in a marginal constituency. The report fails to mention that because of this, the decision was the subject of especially strong criticism at the Devon Health Scrutiny Committee, which rejected by only one vote a proposal to refer the decision and the wider plans to the Secretary of State.
It is particularly outrageous that the report provides no explanation for the scandalous failure of the ICB and its predecessors, together with the RD&E, to make proper use of the former ward over the last 6 years. If poor use has been made of taxpayers’ money, that is not only because NHS Property Services is charging outrageous rentals (could you clarify for that £300,000 p.a. really refers to this wing of the building alone?). It is also because you have failed to take the opportunity to improve local health provision, which is weaker than in many comparable areas of Devon, although Seaton has the most elderly population in the county (after Budleigh Salterton) and lower life expectancy than neighbouring towns like Sidmouth.
Not only has the NHS left Seaton with a lower level of services than any other community hospital in East Devon, but clinics have been allowed to be discontinued and proposals to introduce new services – like one to locate FORCE chemotherapy here which I myself made – were ignored. It is also very disappointing that the report claims that no viable proposals have been received for the use of the ward, ignoring the detailed, costed proposals for using the hospital made by Seaton Area Health Matters, chaired by Councillor Jack Rowland – a body which was set up with CCG and RD&E encouragement after the 2017 events, but in which you subsequently failed to maintain your interest.
I think I speak for a very large section of the local community when I say that it is essential that this decision becomes an opportunity to reverse the neglect of Seaton Hospital, rather than a confirmation of it, and that we expect the ICB itself to play a full part in putting the hospital on a better footing, not least to compensate the local community for your and your predecessors’ neglect over the last 6 years.
I trust that you will make this letter available to the Chair and other members of the Board. I have copied it to Richard Foord MP and Cllr Paul Arnott, Leader of East Devon District Council, and I shall be making it available to the press as well as locally.
NHS makes its report on Seaton Hospital available to me
Following my request, the Devon Integrated Commissioning Board (ICB), successor to the CCG which closed Seaton Hospital’s ward in 2017, has made public the report which was used to make the decision on 4 October to potentially hand the ward building back to NHS Property Services, which could lead to its demolition. In the interests of public information I am publishing this in full. The first page is reproduced as a photo – the remainder of the report continues as text.
However this report presents a distorted history of the hospital and in a following post I will spell out precisely why it cannot be accepted.
The beds were removed following full public consultation when new ways of looking after people in the local community – often in their own home – were brought in and they have been very successful.
The Your Future Care consultation ran from 7 October 2016 until 6 January 2017 and was led by the then-Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). It focussed on proposals to provide more care and support for elderly and frail people at home and in the community. The aim was to prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital and, if patients need to go to hospital, to get home as quickly as possible, improving their chances of a better recovery.
Throughout the consultation period, the CCG attended over 70 events and public meetings. More than 2,000 people attended these events and discussed the proposals. 1,552 responses to the survey were received, in addition to more than 650 letters and emails.
Separately, ownership of Seaton Community Hospital transferred from the then- Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust to NHS Property Services in 2016 when the community services contract moved from NDHT to the then-Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust.
NHS Property Services charges market rent and other property costs on empty space in its buildings. Where there is no tenant, these ‘void costs’ are paid by the integrated care board, in this case NHS Devon.
Since the Your Future Care consultation, vacant space at the hospital, including the empty ward and linked office space, has cost the NHS in Devon around £1.5millon – poor use of taxpayers’ money. The ward has been fully decommissioned, with utilities disconnected to reduce service charges.
Working with health, care and community partners
This year we have been working with local health, care and community partners to see if they are interested and able to take on the space. These partners include:
o NHS Devon commissioning colleagues o Devon’s acute trusts
o Devon’s mental health providers
o Local GPs
o The Eastern Local Care Partnership
o Local voluntary, community and social enterprise sector groups o Other commissioners
o Other interested parties
With all partners who have expressed an interest in occupying the space, we have been clear that any proposal would need be viable financially, which means being able to cover the cost of bringing the building back up to useable standard, reconfiguring it and then paying the annual rent and service costs. We estimate that the cost of bringing it back into a usable condition would be significant.
Generally, hospital buildings need to be built and maintained to a higher standard than normal commercial buildings, which means they can be comparatively expensive to occupy.
This has meant some local groups would like to occupy the space but can’t afford to and no viable schemes have been received from any of the partners we have approached about occupying the ward.
With that in mind, and faced with ongoing stark financial challenges, we have started the process of surrendering this space so we can save the money that is not currently able to benefit patients. We took a decision on this in September, which effectively means we are in the process of handing the former ward area back to the building owner, NHS Property Services.
No NHS services affected
No NHS services are affected by this work. All services at the hospital continue as normal and there is no proposal to change any services. Local people should continue to attend appointments at the hospital as normal.
Next steps
The current position is that negotiations with NHSPS continue on what will happen next as the handback process is not straightforward.
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.
Ideally, a solution will be found that involves a positive future for the former ward but the NHS in Devon is under significant pressure to tackle its financial challenges and any possible solutions need to be found as quickly as possible, mindful of the ongoing and significant financial burden the empty space places on our finances.
There are many possible ways forward and all of them are being explored. If the ward was handed back to NHS Property Services, it would be for NHS Property Services to determine what to do with the building.
We continue to meet with local partners to talk about this work.
Sign the petition to save Seaton Hospital
Our MP, Richard Foord, has got straight on the case:
- he raised it in Parliament today
- and has launched a petition (SIGN HERE).
FOLLOW THIS BLOG for more news of local action on the hospital.
Outrageous proposal to demolish part of Seaton Hospital
www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/23859905.wing-seaton-hospital-demolished-save-nhs-money/
When the Conservatives allowed the removal of Seaton Hospital’s beds to go ahead in 2017, it looked as though the next step was the complete closure of the hospital, which the government was giving incentives for at the time. The resolute community opposition to the whole scheme derailed this plan. Now it’s back in a new form – the partial demolition of the hospital.
The League of Friends, Re:store, Richard Foord MP and Paul Arnott, Leader of EDDC, are already on the case. But the local community will need to act. The NHS managers we fought last time have obviously moved on and the new ones don’t know what the Seaton community is made of. They’re in for a big surprise. I’ve spent some of my ‘retirement’ researching the history of protest movements and I now know a lot about direct action. If the NHS has any sense they’ll drop this idea pronto.
Closed community hospital goes up for auction
A reminder of what the Tories had in mind for Seaton Hospital in 2016-17.
From East Devon Watch:
The former Bovey Tracey Hospital, a purpose-built two-story purpose-built cottage hospital constructed in 1931, has remained closed since 2017 Daniel Clark http://www.devonlive.com A former Devon hospital which was controversially closed in 2017 is set to go up for auction. The former Bovey Tracey Hospital, a purpose-built two-story purpose-built cottage hospital constructed in 1931, has remained…
— Read on eastdevonwatch.org/2023/10/13/inside-closed-devon-hospital-as-it-goes-up-for-auction/
And this is why the change at EDDC matters: leader writes to MPs about government’s ‘flawed’ housing targets
In an open letter to MPs, East Devon District Council’s Leader, and the Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning, express the Strategic Planning Committee’s concerns about the pressures imposed by new houses. The letter to Mel Stride, MP for Central Devon, Richard Foord, MP for Tiverton and Honiton, and Simon Jupp, MP for…
— Read on eastdevonwatch.org/2023/10/12/east-devon-district-council-writes-to-mps-about-the-governments-flawed-housing-targets/
EDDC Changing of the Guard – the last chapter | East Devon Watch
Mark Williams, Chief Executive, East Devon District Council (EDDC) has announced his resignation, after 21 years, through the EDDC press office, see below. Mark Williams was not only Chief Executive and Head of Paid Services, a combination of roles quite common in local government, but unusually he was also Head of Development Management (under the…
— Read on eastdevonwatch.org/2023/10/12/eddc-changing-of-the-guard-the-last-chapter/
New tourist website for Seaton – I really like the video
Looking for things to do or places to stay in Seaton? Head to Visit Seaton and discover the beautiful Jurassic Coast.
— Read on www.visitdevon.co.uk/sidmouth/seaton/
Richard Foord points people to help with the cost of living this autumn
Help with the cost of living this autumn
— Read on mailchi.mp/6f2c7dd8a421/reporting-back-april-6251255
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Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 