Richard Foord gets government minister to disown plans to demolish Seaton Hospital
In his campaign to support Seaton Hospital in Parliament, Richard Foord, our MP, secured a second adjournment debate on Friday, on the accountability of NHS Property Services which owns the Hospital.
In an eloquent contribution (read it in full, it’s well worth it), Richard pointed out that since the Hospital is owned by NHS Property Services and that company is wholly owned by the government, the government could and should change Property Services’ policy of charging clinical ‘market rents’ for any use of hospital space, in cases like Seaton where the local community has paid for the hospital.
The minister replying said the government couldn’t intervene to change the policy for a particular case, thereby ducking Richard’s request that the government change the policy in relation to community hospitals in general. Nevertheless, he did say that there are no plans to demolish a wing of Seaton Hospital, which would ‘very much be a last resort in any event’ – although of course we know that the Devon NHS sourced government funding to do precisely that.
The minister also referred to the fact that the site has now been listed as an asset of community value, ‘which means that such a drastic step is exceedingly unlikely to be supported by the local planning authority or other local stakeholders’. We have East Devon District Council, led by Colyton Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Arnott, to thank for that.
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 